Not Like Everyone Else

Four days after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, an Oklahoma town takes over-protective measures to improve security. Young students are scanned and searched during admission. The school distributes booklets announcing zero tolerance for bullying and threatening behavior. This happens to coincide with a high school spat between freckle-faced Alia Shawkat (as Brandi Blackburn) and popular blonde Laura Wiggins (as Kimberly). After a creative writing journal is found to contain references to a gun, young Shawkat is confirmed as a threat, and suspended from school...

Returning for her next semester, Shawkat is further ostracized. Best girlfriend Simone Carter (as Casey) and potential boyfriend Josh Blaylock (as Noah Taylor) become distant. She is overheard discussing witches with cute Lucas Till (as Kyle Kenney), then rumored to have caused Kevin Bacon-like art teacher J.D. Evermore (as Mr. Gray) to become deathly ill...

This Lifetime movie is "based on a true story," which is believable but not convincing. No argument with the facts, but we need more details about how a 15-year-old girl could be suspended from a public school for 19 days for writing in her journal and wearing eye make-up. We are given this takes place after the Columbine shooting, but it never seems like this girl is much of a threat. A connection to Native Americans and Wicca is unclear. Fortunately, the cast does well with the material; especially nice is an estranged father/daughter sub-plot enacted by Shawkat and Eric Schweig (as Tim Blackbear).

****** Not Like Everyone Else (2006) Tom McLoughlin ~ Alia Shawkat, Eric Schweig, Illeana Douglas, Lucas Till