I knew the true story of Brandi Blackbear long before this movie, and I have a lot of respect for Brandi wherever she is now. I watched this movie because I knew Alia from the prematurely-canceled "Arrested Development," but I'd watched this even if she wasn't playing Brandi. She comes across as Native American very well, and Ileana Douglas, who I've seen across the board in several comedic roles does well too. This movie tells how, in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings, how a number of school elitists manipulated a school policy to terrorize Brandi in order to get her tossed out of school and the blind principal who let them get away with it. Alia portrays a very sympathetic Brandi in a world surrounded by high school cliques, adolescent peer pressure and the Twentieth Century version of a witch hunt. It's strongly compelling, but the two-hour movie is horribly compressed; there 's obviously not enough time to tell the full true story which deserves much more time, but it does express the story of one girl who dared to be different and the brain-dead snobs who ridiculed her for it and unjustly had the motivation to twist things into their direction. Let this movie serve as a warning to parents as to how merciless high school is and to teachers and faculty who turn a blind eye to the abuse of students unable to defend themselves.
Review of Not Like Everyone Else
