Queen of the Nerds
2007 was a good year for geeks, not only did "The Big Bang Theory" hit the small screen but "Sydney White" hit the big screen. Now "Sydney White" has another name "Sydney White and The Seven Dorks" because the storyline is sort of built around the classic fairytale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". But to be honest whilst there are references to Snow White throughout the movie the truth is that "Sydney White" is a mash up of geek and it girl movies such as "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Mean Girls" although there are a lot of other movies you could compare it to. As such "Sydney White" isn't really original but still good fun even if you're not in the target teen audience it is aimed at.
Having been raised by her dad Paul (John Schneider), Sydney White (Amanda Bynes - Hairspray) is leaving home to go college, the same college that her mum went to and hopefully joining the same sorority house. But Sydney soon discovers that the sorority house has changed since her mother's days and under the reign of queen bitch Rachel (Sara Paxton) it is a spiteful place. After Rachel takes a dislike to Sydney, despite being a legacy, she finds herself joining the Vortex, a crumbling residence where the geeks live and where she feels more at home. But with Rachel still looking to make her life a misery Sydney decides to fight fire with fire and run against her as student President and in doing so saving the Vortex from destruction.
In all reality "Sydney White" is nothing more than a lot of cliche and stereotypes starting with Amanda Bynes who once again finds herself cast in the cute tomboy role. From the minute we see her working with her dad on a construction site to the fact she collects comic books this is a familiar Bynes character, forthright and whilst beautiful not a girly girl.
Talking of girly girls well that leads us to the first cliche which is Rachel who is the queen bitch of school who manipulates others to get what she wants, yes we are in "Mean Girls" territory here. As such we watch the first half of "Sydney White" and it is all about Rachel not wanting Sydney in the sorority, then it becomes about her objecting to the relationship which forms between Sydney and handsome Tyler before we get the election battle. It is all incredibly obvious and to be frank unoriginal but still strangely fun.
What is more than fun is the geeks because these various dorks have characteristics which mirror the seven dwarves from sleepy to sneezy through to grumpy and bashful. Now when ever a scene features George (Dopey) the happily dumb look which Arnie Pantoja delivers is so great, you can't but help laugh. But then all the little geek in jokes, from Sydney being a dork because of her comic book collection through to Terrence being Doc the mad scientist who looks a bit like Beaker from the Muppets make it so much fun.
What this all boils down to is that "Sidney White" is simply a mash up of "Mean Girls" and any college geek movie where they have to fight to save a frat house with a touch of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" about it. There is nothing more to it than that and whilst there is a storyline which goes from Rachel being nasty to Sydney to Sydney helping the guys of the Vortex you end up enjoying it more for the humour and the stereotypes than anything else.
