Although this movie has many, many laugh-out-loud moments, it had an undercurrent of fear that made it a challenge to get through without squirming.
The world of this movie felt very Stepford Wife-ish. Everyone in the entire film was white -- except for the Asian prosecutor, the black female journalist, and the black courtroom guard. In many ways, it is absolutely shocking to watch a movie like this in 2019. You can clearly understand how minority/diverse characters were constantly pushed aside so that pretty white people could take all the roles.
Of the teen actresses, three actually had some ability: Kellie Martin ("Angela"), Marley Shelton ("Jaime"), and Margaret Langrick ("Jill"). Christa Miller is also great as Angela's older sister, "Terri." All of them displayed sparks of talent and I enjoyed their performances.
Tori Spelling played the perfect "Stacy" -- but she did not display any emotion that could be called human. And the thing is, Tori has talent and she's better than she's given credit for. In this, she was obviously just doing what they told her, which was "You are the queen and everyone kowtows to you, no matter how right or wrong your actions are." So, in this regard, perhaps she did her job well.
The most questionable performance was from Valerie Harper, who played Angela's mother. No matter what she did, it all seemed over the top. I simply couldn't imagine why she was in this film unless she desperately needed money. For someone who could bring the laughs in "Rhoda" and did well in other shows and stage performances, this one, forgive me, stinks.
The script had lines that sounded dated ("drinky-poo"? Really? A 16-year-old girl in the 1980s would say that?) and I didn't really feel that anything was particularly natural.
But even though there are many faults with this film, there was still this sick feeling that there was a screw loose in Angela's head and that she had completely misinterpreted what it meant to be a human being. She became obsessed with Stacy to the point that if she wasn't going to be her friend, then Stacy had to go -- and, so, in a moment of rage, she stabs her to death.
Kellie Martin had this great blank face so that she could pretend that nothing happened. The fun of the movie came in trying to figure out how long she would last without breaking.
That said: when she told the investigators that she was "babysitting from 8:30 to 11pm" -- the first thing they would have done is follow up with that. But they seemed to sit on that for months before they followed through, which was incredibly stupid.
Again, despite its faults, and its Beverly Hills 90210 feeling, and all of its supposedly attractive, privileged young white people, this movie made a tragic comment about those who feel compelled to fit in and will do anything to make it happen.
The world of this movie felt very Stepford Wife-ish. Everyone in the entire film was white -- except for the Asian prosecutor, the black female journalist, and the black courtroom guard. In many ways, it is absolutely shocking to watch a movie like this in 2019. You can clearly understand how minority/diverse characters were constantly pushed aside so that pretty white people could take all the roles.
Of the teen actresses, three actually had some ability: Kellie Martin ("Angela"), Marley Shelton ("Jaime"), and Margaret Langrick ("Jill"). Christa Miller is also great as Angela's older sister, "Terri." All of them displayed sparks of talent and I enjoyed their performances.
Tori Spelling played the perfect "Stacy" -- but she did not display any emotion that could be called human. And the thing is, Tori has talent and she's better than she's given credit for. In this, she was obviously just doing what they told her, which was "You are the queen and everyone kowtows to you, no matter how right or wrong your actions are." So, in this regard, perhaps she did her job well.
The most questionable performance was from Valerie Harper, who played Angela's mother. No matter what she did, it all seemed over the top. I simply couldn't imagine why she was in this film unless she desperately needed money. For someone who could bring the laughs in "Rhoda" and did well in other shows and stage performances, this one, forgive me, stinks.
The script had lines that sounded dated ("drinky-poo"? Really? A 16-year-old girl in the 1980s would say that?) and I didn't really feel that anything was particularly natural.
But even though there are many faults with this film, there was still this sick feeling that there was a screw loose in Angela's head and that she had completely misinterpreted what it meant to be a human being. She became obsessed with Stacy to the point that if she wasn't going to be her friend, then Stacy had to go -- and, so, in a moment of rage, she stabs her to death.
Kellie Martin had this great blank face so that she could pretend that nothing happened. The fun of the movie came in trying to figure out how long she would last without breaking.
That said: when she told the investigators that she was "babysitting from 8:30 to 11pm" -- the first thing they would have done is follow up with that. But they seemed to sit on that for months before they followed through, which was incredibly stupid.
Again, despite its faults, and its Beverly Hills 90210 feeling, and all of its supposedly attractive, privileged young white people, this movie made a tragic comment about those who feel compelled to fit in and will do anything to make it happen.