So, somehow I had never watched this when it came out, so I was really excited to get this off of Netflix (of course, I had to wait until my husband went out of town for a couple of days to watch it, not sure he is that understanding of my BSC project...). And shockingly, this did not disappoint at all, followed the books pretty well, a lot of the regular sitting charges were featured, plus Rachel Leigh Cook and Larissa Oleynik were in this - 90s awesomeness!!
Here is the cast of characters:
Kristy, played by Schuyler Fisk:
Claudia, played by Tricia Joe:
Mary Anne, played by Rachel Leigh Cook:
They even gave her reading glasses in one scene!!
Stacey, played by Bre Blair:
I had total hair envy of Stacey for the entire movie, look at those luscious, shampoo-commercial locks there.
Dawn, played by Larissa Oleynik (Alex Mack in the house!!)
Mallory, played by Stacy Linn Ramsower (that's a mouthful):
Jessi, played by Zelda Harris:
Logan, played by Austin O'Brien:
This was the first casting choice that really disappointed me, not how I pictured Logan Bruno at all (plus his accent sounded more Australian than Southern in the movie, boo)
Cokie Mason, played by Marla Sokoloff:
Alan Gray, played by Aaron Michael Metchik:
Totally not how I pictured Alan Gray, the goofball prankster and Kristy's nemesis
I don't really feel like doing a plot synopsis for the movie, so I'm just going to do a list of highlights and moments that made my BSC fangirl cheer.
Highlights:
* Kristy wears a Krushers shirt!! Love that they throw in little details like that
* Dawn is full on hippie in this movie, and her biggest regret is that she wasn't born on Earth Day - I guess the screenwriters must have read this one, didn't they?
* Claudia's room is freaking huge!! And surprisingly clean, which really bothered me. At the meetings, Mal and Jessi sat on the floor, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Dawn sat on the bed, Stacey in the desk chair, and Kristy in the director's chair. Love that they got the sitting positions correct.
Isn't that room huge? This is just a random hangout scene, which is why the sitting positions from the meetings don't match up in this shot.
* Kristy has the great idea to start a summer camp for the BSC kids, and they will charge admission per kid. They want to save up money to buy a clubhouse, so that they can stop meeting in Claudia's room. Of course, even though they manage to find a clubhouse and get it fixed up, they decide to donate it as a greenhouse to Dawn's neighbor (played by Ellen Burstyn) and keep meeting in Claud's room
* Claudia has to take a summer school class for science, she struggles, but manages to pass when the BSC members/campers make up a rap about the human brain
* Jessi wears an ABT shirt at one point, which I know stands for American Ballet Theatre, thanks to Center Stage. Again, props on the details
* Apparently Mary Anne's last name is pronounced "Spear" - I always pronounced it "Spy-er" (well, still do, actually, I can't change after 20+ years, deal with it, AMM)
* Cokie Mason and her crew torment the girls all summer, plus Cokie keeps trying to steal Logan from Mary Anne, even invites him to a Smashing Pumpkins concert right in front of MA at one point. I'm surprised they used a real band there
* Several regular BSC kids are featured, including Rosie Wilder, Jackie Rodowsky, and Vanessa Pike (who rhymes!!)
* Stacey meets Rosie Wilder's cousin from Switzerland, a 17 year old named Luca, and she falls in LUV (to use a Stacey-ism). She lies and tells him she's 16, and of course it blows up in her face, but he eventually forgives her and kisses her at the end of the movie. Luca says he'll be back next summer, and Stacey's response is "I'll be 14." Umm, Luca will be 18 at that point, still creepy
* Kristy's dad, the phantom Mr. Thomas, randomly shows up, she sneaks around and hangs out with him all summer (only telling MA, not the rest of the BSC or her Mom). He promises to take her to an amusement park for her birthday, and of course, ends up abandoning her there. Stacey calls Luca, and he drives the girls over there to rescue Kristy
* Kristy gets all flaky because of her dad, shows up late to camp and even misses several meetings. Now, you know that if another member of the BSC did that, she would be all over that girl's butt (cough*Claudia*cough)
* Jackie Rodowsky, the Walking Disaster, finally hits a home run at the end of the movie, and the ball knocks Cokie Mason out of a tree and into a dumpster. Pretty awesome, actually
* Logan and Alan Gray are best friends? What the...?
* Alan Gray has a crush on Dawn, tries to show her that by being an annoying doofus, however after he confesses, she agrees to go out with him at the end of the movie. Guess he has a thing for BSC members, doesn't he?
* At the end of the movie, the girls say that they have spent the best years of their lives in Claudia's room. I think most girls of our generation feel the same way, don't we?
What Claudia Wore:
So, raise your hand if you liked gym in middle school. Anyone...anyone? Actually, I didn't mind gym, I was just athletic enough to get by, never picked last or teased for my skills (or lack thereof...). Plus, doesn't that cover shot bring back memories of middle school gym clothes? We didn't have school-provided uniforms, had to provide our own clothes, and Umbros seemed to be the most popular selection. I do feel sorry for that one dude on the cover with the unnaturally short shorts there, why aren't his buddies laughing at him? Seriously.
So, Mallory is over at the Hobart house (which used to be Mary Anne's house) "studying" with Ben (oh, who am I kidding, Mallory is 11 and Miss Prude, so I'm sure they were actually doing homework). Anyway, Ben mentions that he heard a rumor that the gym class is about to switch activities from field hockey to volleyball. Mal cringes, because she hates volleyball, but hopes that the rumor is just that, a rumor. Plus, Ben mentions that in Australia, his motherland, that they only had gym once a week. Really? I just find that really hard to believe, we had gym every day through 9th grade, then it became an elective. Just can't see another country, especially one like Australia, only having physical education once a week. Good one, AMM.
However, it's getting close to 5:30, so Mallory rushes across the street to Claudia's for the BSC meeting, where nothing of major note happens, except that Logan is randomly in attendance today. However, when we get to our intros for each BSC member, Mallory provides this nugget on Claudia, "I can't believe the word she spells wrong! Honestly, half the time I think she's kidding. But she swears she's not." I might have snorted out loud when I read that (is that redundant? Can you silently snort? Mull it over...).
The next day at school, Mallory's worst nightmares come true - not only is gym switching from field hockey to volleyball, but they are also making the volleyball coed. Apparently field hockey, and every other activity so far, has been divided boy-girl. Mallory is literally terrified of playing with boys (Kenny Loggins + volleyball = awesomesauce. To be fair, none of the 6th grade boys looked like that. Ok, back on track, now). Plus, Mal is disgusted when she finds out that they have to wear those ratty pinnies over their gym uniforms. Oh, gym pinnies, that is a smell that I don't ever want to relive. So the games begin, and the boys serving on the other team quickly realize that Mallory sucks at volleyball. So, naturally, the other team's strategy is to keep serving to Mallory.
Of course, Mallory's teammates start giving her snide remarks, and the opposing team continues to heckle her. The teacher, Coach Walden, does nothing to stop the jeering. Mallory gets so upset and flustered that a serve hits her right in the face. As she starts crying, Coach Walden yells at her for daydreaming during the game. Mallory shows a little spine and yells back at the coach, which causes Mallory to be benched the rest of the game. Now I find the whole coach-ignoring-the-bullying thing a little hard to believe here, not because that doesn't ever happen, but because the whole point of this is to have everybody learn volleyball, and you've got one whole team basically doing nothing. Plus, would a teacher just blame someone for getting hit in the face like that? And even if they did, I would think they would bench the student for safety's sake the rest of the game, and not just tell the 11 year old girl to "man up and pay attention." Maybe AMM had a bad gym experience as a child...
After that horrible first day, Mallory comes up with a plan - she is going to bench herself for every game until they switch to another sport. Of course, Coach Walden is not happy, and tells Mallory that she will get detention every time she does this. As a group of boys walk by and taunt Mallory, she decides that this is a consequence she is willing to take. Ben, who has gym a different period than Mal, tries to dissuade her that afternoon from doing this by telling her that she will fail gym, but Mallory's mind is set. She willingly goes to detention every day, and then rushes home to get the mail before her parents can see the detention notices mailed out by the school. Such a deviant, Mal.
Meanwhile, in BSC-land, the girls start to notice that some of their regular, well-behaved clients, namely Jamie Newton, the Rodowsky boys, Hunter Bruno, and Squirt (Jessi's little brother), are suddenly acting up and causing mayhem. As they continue to compare notes on recent sitting jobs, Mallory realizes the common denominator in all of this ruckus at school and in the club is boys. The boys at school are jerks, the boys they sit for are jerks-in-training. She points this out to the club, and everyone looks at her like "oh sweetie, bless your heart." Stacey mentions all the boys who have been behaving, and starts throwing some statistical analysis at her, and Mary Anne brings up Ben and Logan as examples of fine, upstanding youths. Mallory then says that Ben and Logan are nice because they are not from Stoneybrook, so they haven't been tainted. Oh, the logic of an 11 year old...
Back at SMS, Coach Walden realizes that detentions are not working for Mallory, so after telling her that "life eats up quitters," (that sounds like a motivational poster at Globo Gym, doesn't it?) she makes Mallory wash the pinnies after school as punishment. When she gets home from school that day, the mailbox is empty. Yep, Mrs. Pike finally got the mail and confronts Mallory. She promptly bursts into tears, and after sobbing out her story, Mrs. Pike tells Mallory that she needs to try again, plus go talk to her coach to see if she can get extra help. Coach Walden refuses to give Mallory extra help, but does say that as long as Mallory tries to play, she will make the boys lay off of her (because apparently that wasn't logical enough to think of the first day, way to go, Coach). Mallory soldiers through the rest of the term, then, mercifully, they switch to archery (by the way, I have fond memories of archery in middle school, at the end of the week Coach Schmidtke, maker of the famous Schmidtke juice, would bring out deer targets for us to shoot. Gotta love school in the South...). Mallory turns out to be a natural at archery, hits the bullseye on her second try, and Coach Walden encourages her to try out for the archery team (what the..? Does any middle school have an archery team?). Mallory makes the team, and Katniss Pike is born.
Fashion: Catching Fire!!!
What Claudia Wore: "Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made of small papier-mache tropical fruit. In the other ear, where she had two holes, Claudia wore two small papier-mache hoops."
What Dawn wore: "For example, today she was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top, and black high top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings."
What Mallory wore: "It was a one piece denim jumpsuit. I think it's "too high-style" for me." You're probably right, Mallory.
So this book isn't an actual part of the series, just one of those related "special edition" type books that usually accompany a YA series like this. This book is made up of a series of letters and postcards from one member of the club to another, and each page literally has a postcard or letter you can actually pull out of an envelope and read. The cover claims that there is even a "friendship bracelet from the BSC inside!!," however, since this is a library copy, no telling when and where the friendship bracelet ended up. I feel deprived.
So this book takes place the summer after 8th grade (now which 8th grade year is unclear...). Kristy is in the hospital with appendicitis, plus a staph infection post-surgery, and she gets a chain letter from her cousin, Robin (I think she is one of the cousins mentioned at Elizabeth and Watson's wedding). By the way, do y'all remember the old school chain letters? I never passed them on, thought it was lame, and never had a catastrophic accident befall me. Anyway, Kristy's letter is a somewhat typical chain letter, "you must pass this on or bad luck will haunt you" (I know Mary Anne had a bad experience with a chain letter at one point, haven't reread that one yet. Patience, Iago...). This chain letter has a twist, though - the recipient must reveal a secret to the next person in the chain. So this book has each link/letter of the chain, plus some other random postcards thrown in to provide more exposition. Woo-hoo.
And since this is summer, the BSC members are scattered all over the country on vacations - Claudia and Stacey are at her dad's in NYC; Jessi is vacationing with Mallory and her family in Sea City, NJ; Mary Anne and Dawn are visiting her family in California (I get that MA is Dawn's stepsister, but just seems a little weird for her to be visiting Mr. Schafer in California...); Logan is with extended family in Louisville, KY; and Shannon is at Camp Erie, a summer camp in PA. But fret not, the BSC has set up an answering machine in Claudia's room until they are all back in the 'Brook (and Kristy is released from the hospital).
Y'all ready for some BSC skeletons?
Kristy, to Stacey - after updating Stacey about her hospital stay, Kristy confesses that she sometimes hates her father (the phantom Mr. Thomas, not Daddy Watsonbucks), and, at times, even wishes he were dead. Kristy thought Stacey would understand since she just recently went through her own parents' divorce.
Stacey, to Mallory - After telling Mal about the fab time she and Claudia are having in NYC (they've hit up MoMA and Bloomingdale's, where Claudia bought a pair of leopard print socks and Stacey bought a t-shirt with a Monopoly board printed on it), Stacey reveals her deep, dirty secret - she dyed her hair red right after moving to Stoneybrook for the first time. She later panicked, then redyed it blonde right before her parents got home from work. They never knew the difference, of course, because what are the chances she picked the right shade of blonde dye? Guess that's where they got the idea to do the same for Mallory in California, huh?
Mallory, to Jessi - This one seems kind of like cheating, since Jessi and Mal are on vacation together and literally staying in the same bedroom, but oh well. Mallory confesses that she once cheated off her on an English test for which Mal had forgotten to study. Mallory apologizes and hopes that Jessi will forgive her.
Jessi later leaves Mal a note telling her that she knew it all along and had already forgiven her. BFFs forever!!!
Jessi, to Mary Anne - Jessi reveals to MA that she and her sister, Becca, once played with matches, accidentally dropped one, and burned a hole in their living room rug. They moved a chair over a few inches to cover the hole, but their parents found it anyway while cleaning. However, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey figured that it happened at their last party since they have some friends who smoke. Jessi doesn't tell them differently (honestly, I probably would have done the same thing as Jessi here, blame it on the smokers, girl).
Mary Anne, to Claudia - After telling Claudia about how she and Dawn went to Disneyland, Mary Anne admits to Claudia that she has recently been going to a therapist. She says that she has been feeling overwhelmed with life changes (you know, Dad getting remarried, moving houses, breaking up and reuniting with Logan, I haven't read any of these books yet, deal with it), and that her grades started dropping in school. Her therapist helped her process everything, and now she is slowly feeling more in control (was the therapist ever mentioned in any of the books? Just seems like a pretty big thing to just throw into a chain letter book without it being mentioned elsewhere in the series...).
Claudia, to Dawn - After updating Dawn on the dibbly fresh time she is having in NYC, Claudia confesses that she once stole $1 from Mimi's purse so that she could buy a Twinkie. First of all, remember when you could buy a snack like that from a convenience store with just a dollar? Good times. Second of all, this "secret" just seems stupid, I mean, you know Mimi would have given Claudia money if she asked for it, just seems pointless and out of character for Claudia.
Dawn, to Shannon - Dawn admits to Shannon that she pranked Mary Anne on the flight to California by telling MA that she saw Cam Geary, Mary Anne's favorite actor, in first class. MA spends the whole flight trying to sneak a peek into first class to catch a glimpse of her Tiger Beat crush. Mary Anne even later writes a fan letter to Cam, telling him that they were on the same plane. Oh, sweetie... And Dawn seems to like pranking MA, I will have another example of this coming to Project BSC soon...
Shannon doesn't continue the chain, I guess because the only club member left at that point is Logan, and what 13 year old girl wants to reveal a deep, dark secret to a boy? Plus, in the midst of these big reveals, the BSC plans a "Glad You're All Better" party for Kristy when she is released from the hospital. Big fun in Stoneybrook.
Oh, and sorry, neither Claudia nor Stacey described any of their outfits in any of the letters or postcards. No friendship bracelet from the BSC, no outfits, my day has been ruined.
"I'm an artist and my craft is calling." Okay, that was Ashley Wyeth, but it definitely applies to Mallory in this one. Plus, it's just an awesome quote. I'm surprised someone hasn't done an artistic rendering of it and put in on Etsy yet. By the way, I can totally see Claudia having an Etsy shop as an adult, can't you?
Now this is a story all about how Mal's life got flipped and turned upside down (and now that song will be stuck on your head all day. You're welcome). Mallory is part of an invitation-only creative writing class at SMS with only, like, ten students. Is that realistic for middle school? Maybe high school, but sixth grade? Pfftt. Anyway, Mal's teacher announces that SMS will be hosting a Young Author's Day in four weeks, which will be a writing workshop/contest, with prizes for Best Poem (6th grade poetry, oh boy), Short Story, Mystery, Illustration of Story, and Overall Fiction, plus a famous author will come help judge to competition. This is the defining moment of Mallory's life.
Now, in chapter two, we get our typical BSC introduction, and Mallory describes herself (and the rest of the Pike family) as having chestnut brown hair and blue eyes. What? Mallory has red hair, has always had red hair, and I'm pretty sure she's always had brown eyes (most of the books talk about how she and Jessi have the same eye color). AMM needs to work on continuity, y'all. Plus, Mal talks about how she hates her nose, and that one is a first for me, too. And I'm beginning to think the bra fixation is all Mallory, because both mentions I've come across of Kristy not wearing a bra yet have come in Mal books. Are you there, God? It's me, Mallory.
Dibble alert!! When the BSC gets a rash of jobs for Saturday, Claudia mentions that it's because the local French restaurant, Chez Maurice, is having, like, coupon day or something. Then Claudia mentions that Chez Maurice has the most "dibble food." I'm pretty sure that Claudia knew nothing about French food when she had her date with Terry in California, but maybe her tastes have progressed since then.
Anyway, Mal hunkers down to write her story, but she keeps getting interrupted at home by her brothers and sisters, and even her parents, wanting her to clean up spills, make sandwiches, and mediate fights. Mal gets more and more frustrated, and starts sniping at all of her brothers and sisters. They even start to call her Mean Old Mallory. One day, Claire and Margot even make a play called "Mean Old Mallory," and when Mallory gets home and hears about it, she goes all "NO...MORE...WIRE...HANGERRRRRSSS!!!!"
Meanwhile, she starts getting spacey at her sitting jobs as well, and realizes that she has to give up babysitting until she finishes her story. When she announces that wants to be demoted from junior officer in the BSC (what is lower than junior officer?) and even threatens to quit, she is met with a moment of stunned silence (apparently no one has ever voluntarily quit the BSC, it's like the Stoneybrook Mafia). Kristy suggests that Mallory take a two week hiatus to write before she decides to quit. Wow, a logical suggestion. And they were way more supportive than they were when Claudia need time off for art.
Once Mallory gets home, she takes a poster board sign downstairs that says "Mallory on Strike!!" She insists that she must have peace and quiet all day to write and that she cannot be disturbed for any reason (obviously, it never occurred for her to go to the public library...). Her parents are like, "umm...ok?" and leave her alone. She finishes her story, and talks to her parents about how she feels that she gets taken advantage of because she's the oldest, and her parents apologize. Aww...
Young Author's Day rolls around, and Mallory gets to meet one of her favorite authors, Pamme Reed (I am totally confused how to pronounce that name - Pam? Pammy? Pah-may?) Her story ends up winning Best Overall Fiction, and she decides that she can continue to write and manage to be a junior officer in the BSC as well. I love a warm, fuzzy ending.
Oh, and Mr. and Mrs. Pike decide to have a "Mallory's Special Day" to make up for using her for free childcare so much. She and Jessi get to spend the day shopping at the mall and go to a movie. This made me think about the episode of The Cosby Show when Rudy gets her period and her mom celebrates "Woman's Day" with her. Good times.
Let's get some fashion in the house!!
What Claudia wore: "Like she'll wear polka dot leggings with a short red skirt. Then she'll wear a long-sleeved T-shirt with a black vest (covered with cool pins that she's made herself) over that. Sometimes she decides to go fifties and wears penny loafers with white anklets."
What Dawn wore: "Dawn wears whatever she wants, like three different colored T-shirts at once with lots of necklaces (plus she has two holes pierced in each ear) and a short jean skirt." Mallory thinks Dawn is an "acute" dresser.
What Mallory wore: "On Tuesday I wore my navy blue wool skirt and knit sweater vest with a white starched blouse and penny loafers, so I would look more studious." Sounds very Rachel Berry.
Mallory, shopping edition: "I wore a jean skirt and jacket, bright red tights, sneakers, and multi-colored earrings that Claudia had made for me."
Jessie, shopping edition: "Jessie dressed in a new purple jumpsuit with a gold turtleneck." Sounds very LSU-ish.
Mallory totally has on tight rolled jeans, white slouchy socks, and Keds on the cover shot. I think she has been raiding my fifth grade closet.
So, Mallory comes home from school to find out that her dad's law firm is downsizing, and her mother is afraid that Mr. Pike won't have enough seniority to keep his job. However, pink slips have been flying all day, and Mr. Pike still hasn't received one. So, Mal goes off to the BSC meeting with hopes high.
Oh, and as she goes off to the BSC meeting, we get our typical description/introduction to each BSC member, and for the first time since this project has started, I came across Kristy's "bio" where is mentions that she doesn't even wear a bra yet. I remember how often AMM would use this to describe Kristy in her books (I'm somewhat shocked that it took this many books into my project to come across the reference), and it always bothered me. It's not that it's necessarily inappropriate, I guess, and maybe AMM wanted to reassure her readers that every girl matures differently, but I just never liked reading how Kristy didn't wear a bra yet. Maybe it offends my delicate Southern sense of propriety. Who knows.
Anyway, once Mallory returns home, she finds out her dad received a pink slip at the end of the day (Mallory thought that was really "stale" of his company. OMG.) So, Mrs. Pike signs up for a temp agency while Mr. Pike job hunts. After several weeks of looking with no results, Mr. Pike gets depressed and watches soap operas in his sweats. And this is the mental picture I have of the Pike household:
And if you don't recognize that movie, then I feel sorry for you for not being a kid of the 80s.
The Pike kids from the "Pike Club" to help think of ways to save money (turning off electronics and such), plus ways to earn money as well. The triplets, Adam, Byron, and Jordan, do odd jobs like mowing and dog walking, Nicky gets a paper route, the girls have a lemonade stand. Mallory, meanwhile, gets a month-long sitting job, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, for one of the rich families in Kristy's neighborhood.
Plus, all the Pike kids share that they are being bullied in school because their father lost his job. Some of the 6th grade mean girls spread gossip that he was caught stealing, and some of Mal's school friends believe that. I was a little skeptical, at first, that kids would care this much about adult jobs that they would bully other kids over something like this. But then I remembered what middle school was like, and kids can be mean for the stupidest reason, so I can see this actually happening. Good lesson, AMM.
While all this is going on, Mallory is babysitting the Delaney kids, who are so rich that they have a golden fountain in their house, 2 tennis courts, and a Persian cat that costs $400 (all I can think of is Mariah Carey doing the Stairmaster in her high heels on MTV Cribs). Plus, they have a new pool that all the neighborhood kids want to use. After a while, Amanda and Max Delaney realize that some kids are using them for their pool. Mallory saves the day and helps them find out who their real friends are, and she realizes that rich kids have problems too. Mo' money, mo' problems.
Then Mr. Pike gets an interview, then a second interview, then a third interview (this seemed like a lot when I was a kid, but now that I'm adult who has been through the hiring process a few times, I know what that feels like.) Finally, good news, he got the job!! Mrs. Pike decides she will keep temping a few days a week just to keep her sanity with 8 kids (ok, AMM didn't specify the reason, but come on, the woman has 8 kids, she needs to get out of the house some.)
To celebrate, Mallory hosts a BSC sleepover at her house, where they prank call the girls who bullied Mallory. Oh, I miss the days of prank calling...
Return of the word "dibble" (slang for incredible, apparently):
- the most dibble family
- dibbly sophisticated
- height of dibble-dom
- Queen of Dibbleness
- dibbly strict
- dibbly great
- dibbly disgusting
- dibbly happy
Final "dibble" count - 8. Did she actually make "fetch" happen here? Oh, and spell-check is fine with the word "dibble," but doesn't like any iterations of the word. That's dibbly uncool.
Claudia didn't get an actual outfit description in this one, just a general style statement: "Claudia wears wild clothes like big hats; flowered vests over long shirts that belong to her father and which she leaves untucked; short black pants; and then, something just a little offbeat like penny loafers from the 1950s with white bobby socks." Also, her jewelry is "the height of dibble-dom, she might wear a monkey in one ear and a banana in the other." I'm telling you, she and Clarissa Darling are style sisters.
