Sydney White - USA 2007

One liner - tomboy girl finds out sorority life is not for her but also that she is considered hotter and nicer than the sorority queen bee.

Sydney White has been raised by her plumber dad ever since her mum died when she was young. Sydney has had a solid education learning her dad's trade but also achieving top marks at school. It is now time for her to go to college and she has been reserved a place at the prestigious Kappa Phi Nu sorority by her mum since she had been there too. The construction workers bid her a sad farewell and give her a laptop as a parting gift. She also takes with her a box of memories of her mum which include a Kappa Phi Nu pin and a letter her mum has written for this special day which includes sentiments about making friends for life.

Fresh faced and excited, she enters the college grounds and goes to a dorm. She is surprised by a fond hello and turns around to face her current room mate Dinky Hodgekiss, a modern Southern belle. Dinky announces her real name which is very long so Sydney agrees to call her Dinky. Dinky finds out Sydney is "the other" legacy (Dinky's mum also reserved her a place) and seems to know much more about sorority life. She shows Sydney her four dresses that she is deciding over for tonight's sorority get together and asks Sydney what she is wearing. When she discovers that Sydney is not big on the way of dresses, she offers one of hers.

Sydney and Dinky make their way over to the Greek district. Sydney is in a pretty dress but wearing sneakers while all the other girls are dressed to the nines. At one of the frat houses, four guys are standing on the porch looking at all the freshman and making suggestive comments among themselves. Suddenly one of them alerts the crew to the group of nerds. He picks up his football and yells incoming! and lobs it at the nerdiest of the lot. At that moment, the torpedo football is caught by Sydney. She asks the nerd if he is alright but he is freaked out that a woman is speaking to him and runs away. She then yells at the footballer to be careful and lobs the ball back so hard that he topples over while catching it. All the guys laugh. Tyler, the film's heart-throb is immediately interested and runs down to meet her. He comments that it was quite a catch but Sydney misses all the romance cues being sent while Dinky sees clearly that Tyler is interested. Sydney tells him they are in a hurry but Dinky steps in and agrees that Tyler should show them around.

Finally Tyler gets them to the Kappa house. Inside, president Rachel Wichburn has informed her girls of the excitement to come and also to look out for the two legacies and get her when they arrive. She also tells them that if she deems any girl unsuitable as a possible pledge to the house, she will give the code to take them to the "koi pond" and dump them outside the house. Rachels concerns with looks is revealed as she orders one of the girls to kitchen duty because she has gained some pounds over the holidays. The doors open and a group of excited girls pour into the Kappa house.

Sydney immediately makes a few faux pas' which gets funny looks from some of the Kappa girls. She then heads outside and finds a vine covered gable and immediately visualises the photo of her mother sitting right in the same spot. She smiles happily until two Kappa girls arrive to greet her and she tumbles off the seat uncoordinatedly. They find out she is Sydney White and excitedly take her to Rachel. Without saying anything they present her to Rachel. Rachel immediately turns her back saying show her the koi pond. One of the girls says ahem... this is Sydney White! Rachel is seem frowning but when she turns has the angelic smile on and says really! She then orders one of the girls to take Sydney to the snack table. The other girl asks what is wrong. Rachel says Sydney is clearly not Kappa material, a fact the other girls don't realise. Rachel informs her that she has much more experience and can see it. She points out Sydney who has just attempted to eat a flower decoration on the cake and finding she can't eat it, tosses it over her head where it lands on another girl's big hairdo (without the girl noticing). Rachel's sidekick asks what will be done. Rachel says they can't refuse since she is a legacy, but Sydney will have to manage getting through pledging without help.

Sydney is standing with a group of girls who all say what their fathers do. When they ask Sydney she only says he is in constructions. One of the girls then says oh, so he is a developer! and Sydney just nods, embarrassed. They then start talking about Tyler and Sydney says she met him earlier on. They tell her Tyler is off limits. When Sydney looks confused they say Tyler is Rachel's ex but she'll talk him around because she has a plan. They describe Rachel's plan which is to do with both Rachel's and Tyler's complimentary careers as husband and wife and ends with saying isn't that romantic. Sydney innocently says sarcastically oh yeah, there is nothing as romantic as a five year plan! The other girls look dismayed at her opinion and Sydney excuses herself, not understanding why they don't see it her way.

That night Sydney and Dinky have given up their dorm rooms and moved to the Kappa house. All the new pledges are in sleeping bags in the loungeroom and the Kappa girls all sing them a (creepy) lullaby. As the lights go out, Sydney asks if anyone has found the koi pond.

At midnight, the Kappa girls suddenly burst into the room with air horns and yelling that the fun has begun. They inform the rudely awakened that they are not allowed to call it hazing, but essentially the hazing is about the start. Rachel yells that everyone has to find a date and meet at a diner by 10 past midnight. Dinky runs out happily. Sydney asks her what they are supposed to do. Dinky says oh just find any guy and at that moment a young man is leaving his house with his bag and she asks whether he would be her date. He says of course and they run off down the road. There are girls running around everywhere grabbing guys and Sydney half jogs along, still wondering what to do. She is left standing in the quiet street alone when suddenly she hears a sneeze. Calling hello a man finally emerges. It is one of the nerd guys, Lenny. Sydney asks why he was in the bush and he says he was just going home when he saw a group of wild girls running towards him so he dived into the bush. He says he has dropped all his medications and starts going through the list of ailments he has. Sydney helps pick up his things then says hey you're a guy and asks if he is doing anything. She then grabs him and runs to the diner.

At the diner they are the last couple in, but just make it in time. Rachel is visibly annoyed. They all order something and while all the other girls are watching their weight, Sydney innocently scoffs down a cake, licking the cream off her spoon and making delicious noises. The boys are also watching but for sexual reasons. This make Rachel even more annoyed. She gets all the girls to meet her at the back. She then informs them that they have made it through the first stage, however Sydney is deemed to have an unsuitable date is therefore now the one who has to prank him but dumping him. Sydney protests that Lenny is really nice. Rachel asks if she is serious about pledging.

Sydney apologetically approaches Lenny and says she wants him to meet her in the girls toilets. Lenny asks why. Sydney says it is for the pledging and makes suggestive nods. Lenny says oh right! and heads off to the toilet. Lenny is knocking on the door and says Sydney? Sydney? and goes in where an older woman is standing in front of the mirror. Seeing a man she immediately starts yelling at him and beating him with her handbag. He runs out to find all the pledges gone. A waitress comes out and says I guess you're paying the bill and slaps a piece of paper into his hand.

The pledges go through more hazing, including having to do star jumps and answering questions about the history of Kappa. If they get answers wrong, the Kappa girls spray them with water pistols. Dinky has trouble with an answer, and Sydney whispers it to her, which annoys Rachel. When it comes to Sydney, Rachel asks her what the colours are for Kappa. Sydney answers green and white, to which Rachel says wrong! Emerald and Pearl. Sydney apologises and says she hasn't learned posh talk yet. Rachel is annoyed and all the Kappa girls spray Sydney.

The pledges are sent to Beta Omega Rho frat house whose president is none other than Tyler Prince. The job there is to clean the boys bathroom. All the pledges are grossed out except Sydney. As they leave Tyler stops Sydney and apologises that they had to do that. Sydney says it was no problem and that she has spent a lot of time in bathrooms (for plumbing but she doesn't tell him that). Realising it sounds strange she says that she means she doesn't spend a lot of time in bathrooms. But realising that isn't true she then says she spends the normal amount of time in bathrooms. Tyler is amused, but Rachel comes to get Sydney. Rachel intimates to Tyler that Sydney is no good but Tyler defends Sydney saying she is alright. Rachel intimates that she wants to get back together but Tyler blows her off saying that she dumped him. Rachel defends herself by saying that at that time she thought she was getting married to a member of a boy band to which Tyler replies she can still do that.

Later all the girls are being inspected by Rachel under a lit magnifying glass. She tells each girl disparagingly what they need to fix, such as yellowed teeth, skin lotion, eyebrow plucking. When she gets to Sydney, she can't find anything wrong and nastily says: you know what, don't do anything, just stay right as you are. Sydney happily says oh ok! and goes away.

Sydney goes to the library and requests and order for books. The librarian says she doesn't see many of her kind in here. Sydney asks what kind? The librarian says sorority girls. Just then Sydney sees Lenny and his friends. They have been arguing what is cooler, vampires or pirates. Sydney makes to apologise but Lenny sarcastically responds to her. He tells all the guys to leave. Sydney desperately calls after him that they were made to sing Celine Dion songs in public.

During a meeting of sorority, fraternity and college heads, Rachel presents her plan. She says that her father and Tyler's father have donated a sum of money to get the project underway which is to demolish an old college building, affectionately known as The Vortex, and replace it with a state of the art meeting house which will be for the residents of the Greek district. While she says I present to you, the Greek House, she slams is menacingly down over the model of the Vortex, squashing it completely.

Sydney is walking past the Vortex and asks which fraternity it is. She is told that is not a fraternity, it is just an old house that got abandoned and then students who found themselves homeless gradually moved in there and since that time it seems to have attracted anyone who was a misfit, which is why they call it the Vortex. Sydney notices all the geek guys she had previously seen going into the house.

It is the day of the pledging. Rachel announces that as part of tradition, the pledges will wear dresses owned by the Kappa girls and that it will be a random draw. She says it should be no problem since they are all the same size here. She says that the first lucky girl will be wearing the finest from Italy (one of Rachel's dresses) and picks Sydney. Rachel looks visibly cross but all the girls cheer for Sydney. Sydney is shown to Rachel's room where Rachel goes through her rack and then selects a frumpy black gown. While they are in the room, the computer dings and Rachel's sidekicks open the Hot or Not webpage. Sydney asks what it is and is told that someone set up a vote on MySpace of who was the hottest on campus. Sydney says so I could be in there? Rachel retorts that freshman are never on there. One of the sidekicks says but she is, and Sydney is somewhere in the 100s. Rachel says its a stupid little thing anyway and doesn't mean anything. Rachel is curently number 1. Sydney asks why don't people just cheat by clicking on themselves numerous times a day? The sidekicks seem scandalised and say to her no, we are only allowed to vote once! but Rachel pauses while she is working through her dresses, which suggests that she does vote for herself multiple times.

Through the rest of the movie, Sydney moves up in the Hot page, much to the anger of Rachel.

That night, Sydney is radiant despite being in a frumpy gown. Tyler is breathtaken and asks Sydney for a dance. At the end of the evening, Rachel proceeds to issue pins to the new pledges, welcoming them as now Kappa girls but when she gets to Sydney and there is one pin left, she denounces her in front of everyone and says that Sydney broke pledge rules by cheating on the quiz, lying about her father's profession and revealing house secrets (Celine Dion songs test) to the public. Sydney says she doesn't want to be in a sorority if this is what it is all about. As she leaves, Rachel demands she return the dress. In a fury, Sydney rips the dress in half, and exits the room in front of everyone in only her spanx.

Sydney has packed her bags and has nowhere to go. To top it off it is raining. She is looking into her box of memories including the Kappa pin that belonged to her mum and crying. Meanwhile inside the vortex, the nerds are amusing themselves when Embele makes to leave and then returns saying there is a girl outside their house. All the guys rush to see and Lenny realises it is Sydney. Frustrated by his own good nature, he throws on a raincoat and goes to her. Sydney says she was thrown out but having given up her dorm room already she has no accommodation. She says you probably don't want me sitting out here so I'll be on my way. Against his own will Lenny says she can stay.

She is introduced to all the guys - Embele who is from Africa and has not yet dealt with his jetlag despite it now being 3 years later. He sleeps randomly and attends to his studies late at night. Terrence who is working on some bizarre experiments and has been in college for many years. Spanky who really likes girls but has not had much to do with them and keeps saying inappropriate things. Jeremy who is always in a boy scout uniform and is easily influenced. And Gurkin who is an isolated, angry man who writes a blog on injustices of the world. Sydney is taken to her room in the attic where everything is covered in dust and the handle of the window breaks off. Lenny appears overly helpful and offers her a range of his medication including allergy tablets, but she replies she has her own. He offers her feminine aids as well but she again replies she is fine. Just then Spanky appears dressed only in a silk dressing gown and says he can help her with anything she needs as well. Lenny chases him out of the room and tells Sydney he is sorry about that. Just then he sees Sydney's open suitcase which is filled to the brim with comics. He says: is that...? and they both say the title and its rarity at the same time. Lenny decides Sydney is alright after all.

Sydney calls her dad but tells him everything is fine when he asks about how the sorority is.

Downstairs all the guys are gathered around Sydney's sports bra which is hanging over the shower. Spanky announces that "that thing has touched boobs".  All of them stare at it in awe.

Sydney tries to adapt to her new home. As she descends the stairs, her foot goes through one of the boards. Then, the wiring in one of the pillars catches fire and Embele nonchalantly extinguishes it with a fire hydrant. Horrified, Sydney asks what is going on. They explain that no one spends money on the house. Sydney protests that it is a danger. They explain that Rachel being the overall president has never allowed any funding to go to this house. Terrence appears with another of his crazy experiments and vanishes again.

Sydney's dad appears suddenly. Sydney asks what he is doing here and he replies he could tell straight away something was wrong so he got in his truck and drove here. They take a walk and Sydney confesses she feels she has let everyone down. Her dad says he doesn't believe her mum would care whether or not she stuck to the sorority and to just be herself.

While Sydney is out, she runs into Tyler. He asks how she has been and that he has been thinking about her. She angrily confronts him about his girlfriend humiliating her in front of everyone. He says Rachel is not his girlfriend, when suddenly Sydney cuts him off - she has just seen a table set up with people announcing the upcoming election of student president. Running over she asks for a sign up form, then several more.

She goes home and announces to the guys she knows how to get the house fixed - they are all going to enter the election. At first the guys refuse but she talks them into it. They then have to select who will run for president. They all pick Terrence.

At an open day for the candidates, they are manning a stall but not getting much attention. Sydney is questioning Lenny's special non allergenic vegan organic patties when Dinky arrives and asks for just that thing. Lenny and Dinky look at each other and make conversation. This time it is Sydney who realises that Dinky is flirting with Lenny. Suddenly some Kappa girls arrive and tell Dinky she has to go back and see Rachel right away. Dinky has changed, having been told her giant Dolly Partonesque hair is not Kappa material and now has it straightened. Sadly she bids goodbye to Sydney, and makes a feeble attempt to say she has been having a good time at the house. Sydney drums up business by saying there are free drinks at their stall. Students rush the stall.

Tyler asks Sydney on a date by surprising her with an a capella group in the library. Other students tell her to keep it down so it becomes impossible to make them stop until she agrees to the date.

The guys attempt to help Sydney get ready for her date. Funnily enough when she appears in her tomboy clothes they are able to tell her its the wrong outfit. Then when Tyler arrives, all the guys are defensive as if they are Sydney's dads. Tyler manages to win them over, including Gurkin who has written his own computer game that no one can defeat him on. Tyler wins and when the others ask how he managed that because they all believe he is only a frat boy, he says that frat boys can be geeks too.

On their date, Tyler says he needs to do something first. He tells Sydney that he has to help out in the soup kitchen for the homeless because of a prank he played, and he is bound to do it by his professor. Sydney is touched by the manner that Tyler approaches his task and his genuine warmth to the people. She engages in conversation with the professor who reveals that Tyler actually completed his penalty but has continued to come in anyway. Tyler takes Sydney to the top of a tower to have sandwiches, which Sydney finds comforting and down to earth. He tells Sydney he thought she would appreciate it and intimates he has never met anyone like her.

Back in front of the Vortex the guys spy on Sydney when she returns home to see her kiss Tyler.

Tyler invites all the guys to a party at his frat house.

Rachel has an evil plan for the frat party and enlists Kappa girls to help. At first the frat and sorority girls ignore the geeks but then Terrence volunteers for a beer challenge which involves sucking beer from a keg while doing a handstand on the keg. Everyone thinks he is a non event, however they soon start rapturously cheering as he beats everyone else's time. Sydney is pleased but Rachel puts her plans into action. While Sydney is distracted by Tyler asking her to dance, Kappa girls approach the geeks and tell them there is a hot tub outside and where they can get naked. The girls tell the geeks they will be waiting. Excited the guys run to the back and strip down, then walk around the yard looking for the tub. Sydney realises something is wrong when she can't see any of the geeks but it is too late. Rachel pulls the curtains and turns on the lights and all the party starts laughing at the naked guys. On the way out, she thanks Tyler for distracting Sydney loudly.

Because of something Tyler mentions in passing of his experiences inside The Vortex (such as the sudden fires) Rachel manages to have the house condemned and everyone is kicked out. The geeks feel Sydney has let them down. They move to a motor inn but Sydney finds them and manages to get back into their good books.

Rachel learns of Terrence's multiple years staying at college and uses it to put an end to his presidency run - he is too old. The geeks are shattered, but eventually Sydney declares she is going to run instead. They start polling hard and turn to the minority groups of the campus, including the transexual drama group, Orthodox Jews, marching band, punks etc and spending time listening to what they want and joining in with their activities. During this, a girl walks past Gurkin and notices his T Shirt which states his blog site. She says: do you read that too? He tells her he is the author. She says OMG I swore if I ever met the guy who wrote it I would totally hook up with him. So then they become an item.

Rachel wages a war. Sydney is working hard to finish her assignments as well as carry out her polling so Rachel enlists a hacker. The hacker hacks into Sydney's computer remotely and deletes everything on her hard drive. Sydney becomes comatose but the geeks pull together and manage to snap her out of it and give her a pep talk. Sydney has to stay up all night before the candidate debate just to rewrite her essay. She manages to do it all and send it off but falls asleep in the library.

The next morning the debate is starting and while Rachel's seats are all filled up, hardly anyone has shown up for Sydney's side. More of a problem, Sydney is still asleep. Rachel whispers in passing that she believes Sydney has abandoned them. The geeks don't know what to do but Tyler runs off to look for her and finds her in the library. Sydney arrives just in time and begins her speech. She is partially beaten turn by turn by Rachel's statements, but then the groups she polled begin arriving. Cheered on by their support Sydney manages to deliver strong statements.

Rachel runs off in a fury followed by the Kappas. However, Dinky, backed by Rachel's two previous henchwomen, tell her things are changing and that she is kicked out of Kappa because she has broken their rules. They then chant the Kappa statements, slap their hands on their ass and strut off which Rachel screams in anger.

Of course, Sydney wins the vote in the end and the movie closes by the Vortex being fixed by students from all over the campus. Sydney and Tyler are kissing. Gurkin and his date are together. Dinky and Lenny get together. Just then Terrence reappears dressed swankily and driving an amazing car. He says that finally he got the test to work and he has invented a machine that can work out probabilities and sold it to a lotto company. He is a multi millionaire. A photo is taken and Sydney has a voiceover echoing the sentiments from her mum's letter, that she will make friends for life. And of course, Sydney makes it to number 1 on the hottest on campus website.