All I Wanna Do (DVD, 2000)

ALL I WANNA DO takes place in 1963. Gaby Hoffman stars as Odette Sinclair, a rebellious teen whose flustered parents, dismayed by their daughter's plans to lose her virginity, enroll her in Miss Godard's Preparatory School for Girls. Odette thinks it's the end of the world, but she soon meets a small group of fellow travelers, the Daughters of the American Ravioli, named after their favorite snack, which they eat cold, out of the can. Verena (Kirsten Dunst) is their spirited leader, and they are opposed by class snitch Abby Sawyer (Rachael Leigh Cook), and the well-intentioned head mistress of the school, Miss McVane (Lynn Redgrave). The girls learn that their school is going co-ed, and after an initial disagreement about the relative merits of boys, they hatch a somewhat absurd plot to preserve the school's all-girl tradition. The proto-feminist ideals expressed in the film are perhaps a bit anachronistic, but realism is not the point. It's got an ingratiatingly goofy tone, and the young cast is enjoyably energetic. The film has developed something of a cult following among teenage girls, and it's easy to see why. It offers a funny, edgy, enthusiastically mounted testament to teen female solidarity.