Girls will like ‘Sleepover’
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, July 8, 2004
The standard-issue teenage high jinks of “Sleepover” include playing hooky, underage driving, nightclub-crashing, flirting with a teacher, and buck-naked full exposure. They’d be a little easier to take if we were talking about 18-year-olds, but this movie is about eighth-graders.
Yes, they’re growing up fast, aren’t they? “Sleepover” is an amiably made comedy that will probably enchant the tweener market, especially girls. It’s about them.
Julie (likable Alexa Vega, from the “Spy Kids” pictures) is dreaming of high school. This night, three of her friends are coming over for a slumber party, while a big dance is happening for the older kids.
Goaded by some refugees from “Mean Girls,” Julie and her friends embark on a scavenger hunt, which involves various kinds of trouble. And wouldn’t you know it, the path will eventually lead to the big dance.
Back at home, Julie’s older brother (Sam Huntington, channeling David Schwimmer) covers for the girls. He’s a funny character, a college dropout pining for his youth (“Be a teenager. It ends too soon,” he says mournfully).
Julie’s fantasy dreamboat is a high school boy (Sean Faris), who keeps crossing paths with her on this wild night. The movie never pauses to consider that it might be odd for an eighth-grade girl to actually end up with a guy this old.
It also isn’t worried about the queasy scene where Julie, in disguise, flirts seductively with a teacher she’s run into at a nightclub. After ordering her a Sex on the Beach, he happily poses for a photo with her after the unmasking. Maybe in the sequel they show him getting fired from his teaching job.
“Sleepover” is perkily directed by Joe Nussbaum, who made a splash a couple of years ago with a short film called “George Lucas in Love.” He doubtless grew up on the John Hughes teen comedies of the 1980s, and taps into some of that energy here.
It works, for what it is. The requisite life lessons and group hugs are handed out, and the usual Cinderella gears are engaged.
Add some tweener lingo (“This party really skeeves”) and you have appeal for the target audience. They will like it, even if parents are alarmed at the acceleration in growing up.
Mika Boorem (left), Alexa Vega, Kallie Flynn Childress and Scout Taylor-Compton star in “Sleepover.”
“Sleepover” HH
Appealingly acted: A slumber party for some eighth-grade girls gets interrupted by adventures more suited to high-schoolers. But that doesn’t seem to bother anyone in this lively comedy, and the target audience of tweener girls will probably love it.
Rated: PG rating is for subject matter, language.
Now showing: tk
“Sleepover” HH
Appealingly acted: A slumber party for some eighth-grade girls gets interrupted by adventures more suited to high-schoolers. But that doesn’t seem to bother anyone in this lively comedy, and the target audience of tweener girls will probably love it.
Rated: PG rating is for subject matter, language.
Now showing: Everett Mall, Galaxy, Grand, Marysville, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade,
