A distinctly average teenage rom-com, Sleepover revolves around 14-year-old junior high student Julia (Alexa Vega) who has a mum who doesn't "do fun" and lives in "a universe where wearing the wrong sneakers can make you one of life's outcasts". So when she and her friends are challenged by the "popular girls" to compete in an all-night treasure hunt to win a prime lunch spot on campus, she leaps at the chance. After all, it's for a "very important adolescent cause"...
Helmer Joe Nussbaum's directorial debut is a so-so teen flick pitched at a female audience even younger than its juvenile characters. What this film absolutely isn't is a film pitched at 30something film critics; the sight of Julia's mother singing along to Wang Chung's 1980s hit Everybody Have Fun Tonight will have those of a certain vintage miserably checking the backs of their hands for signs of ageing. There's not a lot here to keep mums and dads amused (though it's doubtful whether Sleepover's core audience will be taking anything as humiliating as their parents along to the cinema in any case).
"A TOUCH PATRONISING"
That said, Vega - last seen in Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids Trilogy - is a bit of a find; a mini-Nia Vardalos with a natural-born comic ability. So much so, that she threatens to overshadow the rest of the cast whenever she's on screen.
The script could have been a little, well, funnier ("For the love of carbs!" doesn't really hit the spot), and the lesson that an unloved fat girl might find her perfect match with a fat boy is more than a touch patronising. But ultimately, the overriding impression you're left with after watching Sleepover is that US teens dancing to Skater Boi rock look absolutely ridiculous.
Sleepover (2004)
