Sleepover is a 2004 teen comedy film directed by Joe Nussbaum and starring Alexa Vega.
Having just completed junior high, 14-year-old Julie (Vega) and her best friends Hannah (Mika Boorem), Yancy (Kallie Flynn Childress), and Farrah (Scout Taylor-Compton) plan one last fun night together before Hannah moves away with her family. Then rivals Staci (Sara Paxton) and her Girl Posse propose a little contest with them: a city-wide scavenger hunt between the two groups, with the winners securing a coveted lunch spot when they start high school that fall.
Also in the cast are Jane Lynch and Jeff Garlin as Julie's parents, Sam Huntington as her older brother Ren, Sean Faris as her crush Steve, Evan Peters as her skater friend "SpongeBob" (who has a crush on Staci), Brie Larson as Staci's friend Liz, and Steve Carell as an inept neighborhood security guard the girls have to elude.
Tropes in this movie:
- Accidental Pervert: Hannah texts Julie "sex on the beach", and Julie doesn't realize the term means a drink at first.
- Alpha Bitch: Stacy Blake.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Julie's mom dancing in the nightclub (granted she wasn’t supposed to see that) and the fact that she wants her to have a ladybug themed party.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Julie is given the crown at the dance, especially since Steve personally singles her out.
- Basement-Dweller: Jules' older brother Ren used to go to college but moved back home with her and their parents, much to Julie’s annoyance.
- Beautiful All Along: Male example. The girls get their teacher to take his glasses off, loosen his tie and mess up his hair a little. A woman instantly takes note off him.
- Beta Bitch: Liz. In a twist, she gets no real character development while Staci is given a Pet the Dog moment.
- Big Eater: Ren and his pet dog manage to devour all four of the girl's Domino's pizzas. Albeit leaving both Ren and his dog with a stomach ache.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The main girls: Hannah and Yancey (blondes), Julie (brunette), and Farrah (redhead).
- Bishie Sparkle: How Jules sees her crush as he skateboards over a small water fountain and takes off his helmet.Julie: He is soooo flush.
- Brain Bleach: Jules' reaction to seeing her mom dancing in the club.Julie: I think I just had a stroke.
- Bumbling Dad: Julie's dad is completely incompetent and easily fooled by other people dressing up as his daughter.
- Butt-Monkey: The PatrolTech Policeman Sherman receives much abuse and slapstick throughout the film as he tries to bust the girls.
- Cat Fight: Between Staci and Todd's other girlfriend when they run into each other at the big High-School Dance
- Clark Kenting: Subverted. A pair of sunglasses ultimately prove inadequate to the task of keeping Julie's teacher from recognizing her.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Implied this is happening with Staci, as she looks like she's warming up to SpongeBob.
- Double Standard: Julie sneaks into her crush's house, watches him undress in the shower and steals his underwear. Not only does he not find this creepy, but they get together. Had they filmed this with the genders reversed, there would be a lot more controversy.
- First Kiss: With Julie's dream guy, of course.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: Style-savvy Fashionista Farrah (the pretty/sexy one), sweet, insecure Yancy (the sweet-naïve one), Leader and Team Mom Hannah (the admirable one), and ordinary, somewhat sporty Girl Next Door Julie (the tomboyish one). Though the roles of Hannah and Julie somewhat overlap; Julie is caring and also tries to be cautious and responsible, while Hannah is outspoken, competitive and reckless in a tomboyish way.
- Girl Posse: Staci's two mean girl cronies.
- Give Geeks a Chance: Implied between Stacie and SpongeBob.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: For Mr. Corrado, the nerdy teacher the girls make over, along with a loosened tie and messed-up hair. He has to quickly check that the woman interested in him is attractive with the glasses first though.
- Happily Ever After: Everyone but Staci and her Girl Posse gets one.
- Hidden Depths: Staci the Alpha Bitch takes to SpongeBob quite well. Despite initial looks that she'd be grossed out by him, she legitimately found some of the gross things he was talking about surprisingly cool and was certainly not as antagonistic towards him as she was to Juile. Could heavily imply that once high school was over for her, she could date him with no problem. She also refuses to be pressured into sex by her Jerk Jock boyfriend at the beginning.
- High-School Dance: The climax takes place at one.
- Improvised Zipline: How Julie slides from her window to her treehouse.
- In Da Club: Julie and friends have to sneak into a club to get a drink for one of the items on the list. It turns out her mother is there.
- Kick the Dog: Liz and Staci tell Yancy that Liz's father is a lawyer so that he could work on the diet pill company for diet pill's nonperformance on Yancy.
- Staci's boyfriend Todd kicks her out of her car and leaves her alone in a park after she won't have sex with him.
- Large Ham: Steve Carrell as Officer Sherman Shiner, who hilariously outbursts whenever he fails at his job.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: Officer Shiner is employed by "PatrolTec".
- Line-of-Sight Name: Staci names Julie's dating site avatar June after a calendar.
- Non Action Dress Rip: This is how Julie makes her mom's dress "cool."
- "Not So Different" Remark: Both Jules, her posse and Liz comment that Staci is no different from Jules and the other unpopular girls because she didn't actually sleep with a guy.
- One Crazy Night: The characters are tasked (during the titular sleepover) with completing a scavenger hunt/dare list to win a bet and the whole thing is resolved at the big dance.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: SpongeBob. He's listed in the credits as Russell.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. Julie initially fools her teacher by putting on a pair of sunglasses, but he eventually recognizes her.
- Parental Obliviousness: Enough for four teenage girls to sneak out of the house for an entire night.
- Pet the Dog: Alpha Bitch Staci gets a big one during the high school dance scene, getting together and dancing with SpongeBob.
- Rousing Speech: After the ticket taker won't let her in without a ticket.Julie: I know who you are.
Ticket Girl: You do?
Julie: You're out here collecting tickets instead of being inside at the dance. You spend your weekends doing extra credit algebra, you play way too much Monopoly with your parents, and you've never eaten anywhere near the fountain. And in 4 years I will be YOU unless I get into that dance.
Ticket Girl: (Dramatic Pause) GO! Get out there and do it for those of us who couldn't! - Sentimental Music Cue: Swells up at any emotional scene.
- Shout-Out: Russell's nickname caused by his teeth is SpongeBob, an obvious reference to SpongeBob SquarePants.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Played straight, as Julie pursues Steve Philips.
- Slumber Party: It's in the title, though the girls sneak out and the main one's brother has to cover for her.
- Slow Clap: In an overly dramatic climax scene.
- Tomboy: Julie, who is skilled enough at skateboarding to do through the whole town.
- Too Dumb to Live: Julie's older brother, Ren as well as their dad.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Some TV Trailers for this film ended with Staci and her posse sitting with unpopular girls by the dumpster getting garbage dumped on them.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: SpongeBob, Ren and the skateboarding boys vow to never speak to anyone of their having to crossdress and briefly masquerade as the sleepover girls for Julie's dad.
- We Used to Be Friends: Jules comments that Staci used to be friends with her and Hannah and doesn't know why she became a mean girl.
