I often wonder about the big deal with American college sororities, how college students want to be part of them, and also why they join. I get how American movies sometimes make it look like being part of something is an advantage, but the rituals of joining this sorority and the characteristics it displays usually put me off. The politics that are involved in it, how these students tend to follow some cruel personality and won't let themselves go against them even when they seem to hate most of it.
Sydney white is a movie that spans multiple genres, from college/Teen comedy and romance, as well as a modern fairy tale. Directed by Joe Nussbaum and Starring Amanda Bynes as Sydney white, a teenage girl who lost her mother at the age of 9, having her father and his construction worker colleagues raise her, and who will later grow up wanting to follow her mother's legacy by attending the same college that her mother attended and, most importantly, joining her mother's sorority family.
She came to understand that the sisterhood she expected to be part of was not the sisterhood she met; she was different from the girls, and just like her mother, she always wanted to fight for something that is right.
Rachel Witchburn, played by Sara Paxton, was the president of the student council. Among the elite members of the council, at the first glance of Sydney white, Rachel had already deemed her unfit to be in their sorority. She will become jealous of her as soon as she discovers that her ex-boyfriend has a thing for her, and she was already on a list that no new student ever appears on.
Sydney White, after being rejected by the sorority she had longed to be part of, will have no choice but to join a group of “misfits” of the college who will become her new family on campus, since she had forfeited her campus dorm room to join the sorority and had nowhere else to stay after she was kicked out.
She will team up with the other misfit and will contest for the position of student council president, coming out against Rachel Witchburn, putting into practice what she had learned from her political science class.
Amanda Bynes played her role very well as the lead, being charming as Sydney, while Sara Paxton also delivered well as the cruel person who thrived on power and control. The “misfits” also added humour and comedy to the movie as well.
The movie is a college comedy that mirrors the Snow-white fairy tale in American sorority and campus politics; it shows how popularity and class dominate college lifestyles, how the elite group on campus dictate and misuse student council funds for their advantage, neglecting the rest of the students. It delivers a message about inclusiveness, being authentic, and the courage to stand against what is wrong.
I recommend the movie for fans of teen/college movies as well as romance and fairy tale fans.
Images from IMDb
Rating: 60/100
