Sydney White [DVD]

Entering college is a time of great transition, but Sydney White (Amanda Bynes) is secure in her plan to follow in her late-mother's footsteps and pledge Kappa Phi Nu sorority when she arrives at Southern Atlantic University. Raised by a plumber father and a host of other construction workers, the comic book collection toting Sydney is definitely her own unique person and has some decidedly tomboy tendencies that contrast starkly with the ditzy, superficial girls she meets at her first sorority function. Sorority leader and student council president Rachel (Sara Paxton) takes an instant dislike to Sydney and vows to make her rushing experience intolerable. Only Tyler (Mat Long), a member of one of the campus fraternities, seems to see and appreciate the real Sydney. After weeks of hazing abuse, Rachel declares Sydney unfit to join the sorority and a despondent Sydney joins seven misfit boys in a soon-to-be-condemned house on Greek Row known as the Vortex. Fueled by the desire for revenge and a newly discovered sense of respect and belonging thanks to her new roommates, Sydney decides to fight back against the snobbery of the Greek elite and champion the rights of all misfits on campus by running against Rachel for Student Council President. By rallying the support of interest groups and misfits campus-wide, it appears that Sydney might just have a chance of winning. This film begins with an almost gag-inducing portrayal of sorority snobbery at its worst and soon gives way to a hysterically comic look at the under-representation of the masses in collegiate society. The satirical parallel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is heavy (this is the story of "Sydney White and the Seven Dorks" complete with Sneezy, Sleepy, and Doc) and the portrayal of interest groups on college campuses is farcical to the extreme. All in all, Sydney White is hysterically funny and surprisingly appealing to audiences of both genders and a wide age range. --Tami Horiuchi

Romantic teen comedy transposing the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves into a modern US college setting. Amanda Bynes stars as Sydney White, a beautiful young student who pledges her allegiance to her late mother's once dignified sorority when she starts college on a scholarship. But she soon realises that sorority life is far from what it was in her mother's day, and decides to find a home outside the college. She ends up sharing a house with seven social outcasts - but soon discovers that every one of the 'seven dorks' has a special quality of his own...