It’s the end of eighth grade, and Julie is hosting a sleepover with her friends, Hannah and Farrah, as a way to celebrate. She can invite 3 friends – but her former best friend and popular girl, Stacy, declines the invite. So, Julie invites an overweight girl, Yancy, after a few kids pick on her.
Her mom’s biggest rule is no leaving the house. She wants to stay behind, but Julie insists that she doesn’t need to since she plans to follow that rule as well as the other guidelines: no boys or destroying anything important. Her dad remains home instead.
However, after Julie and her friends have fun during the party, the popular crew show up, including Stacy. They make a deal to go on a scavenger hunt. Whoever loses sits at the worst table in the high school. Hannah agrees on it.
Julie breaks her mom’s rule and sneaks out of the house. The girls search for different items while Julie’s older brother, Remy, covers for her. Will she and her friends make it back without getting in trouble?
Despite the unpopularity of the film at the time of its’ release, I actually liked the movie. Many famous actors star in it, such as Alexa Vega, Jane Lynch, and Steve Carrell.
While I found the movie engaging, I also spotted out a lot of unbelievable scenes.
For example, when the movie opens, Julie’s locker is still filled and decorated. Why hasn’t she cleaned it out long before? In real life, secondary school students are required to clean out their lockers before finals begin. Also, was there no moving-up ceremony?
I also found it odd that the characters were able to avoid being noticed and good at fooling others just for plot convenience. Folks, please don’t try this.
What I liked about the film was the silliness, regardless of what I said before. The themes of friendship and young teen drama were done well, too. The romance between Julie and an older boy, Steve, was sweet.
That being said, maybe some of its unpopularity was because of the main character’s goal. This could be offensive to those who are not popular, especially those who feel that others view them as awkward and have trouble making friends. This is particularly as issue for those with disabilities.
Unfortunately, people seemed to accept able-ism in movies during the 2000s. There were even a couple of TV show episodes where able-ism is used.
One is from “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” where Zack is flunking his assignments, and has a new classmate at school who has dyslexia, a learning disability. He fakes the disorder as an excuse to not do his schoolwork. That episode only aired twice before it was banned since it offended people with Dyslexia and those who knew those with that condition.
The other is an episode of “Glee,” which came out in 2009. There was a deaf chorus where the students sounded out-of-tune. I would imagine that it offended people who knew deaf people, as well as those who were deaf or hard of hearing.
I don’t know if it was banned like that episode of “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” mentioned above, though. But maybe it’s unavailable on Disney Plus. I’m sure you all know that Disney bought Fox. So, everything Fox had produced is on Disney Plus.
Yet I still enjoyed “Sleepover,” and give it 4 out of 5 stars.