THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER
Written & Directed by David Robert Mitchell
Produced by Adele Romanski
Released by Sundance Selects
USA. 96 min. Unrated
With Marlon Morton, Amanda Bauer, Claire Sloma, Brett Jacobsen, Shayla Curran, Annette DeNoyer, Mary Wardell, Nikita Ramsey & Jade Ramsey
 

Both fresh and familiar, The Myth of the American Sleepover unfolds quietly in an iconic place and state of life (and the movies) that seem frozen in time—a suburban idyll of a hot summer day and night right before the start of the new school year.

In a sylvan Michigan suburb untouched by the recession, the hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer mean the last moments of freedom for teens who cross paths during a beautiful day in the neighborhood—at sports practice, while shopping with mom at the supermarket, hanging around the pool, and waiting to watch a meteor shower. Incoming freshmen ride bikes, while seniors pick up a sister or girlfriend in cars, girls flirt with boys mowing lawns, and everyone’s sneaking beers and cigarettes.

Debut writer/director David Robert Mitchell pays immediate tribute to George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) when Rob (Marlon Morton) anticipates high school as an upcoming feast of older girls. Like Richard Dreyfuss nearly 40 years earlier, Rob ogles a mysterious blonde and sets out to find her during the rest of the day and night. Sophomore Maggie (Claire Sloma) rebelliously flaunts her piercings to waste no time hitting on older boys, including a drunken senior who waxes self-consciously nostalgic for sleepovers: “We were tricked into giving up childhood.” Scott (Brett Jacobsen) can’t bring himself to go back to college in Chicago, and would rather track down Ady and Anna Abbey (Nikita and Jade Ramsey), the cute twins a year behind him. He has always wondered if one had a crush on him (ah, but which one?), so he crashes their freshman orientation sleepover at the University of Michigan. The social stratification by gender and age determines which party all will go to that night (not that the boys want to call theirs a sleepover).

The girls scare themselves playing Ouija, the younger boys set out with toilet paper for tricks, and the destination for the older high schoolers is the local lovers’ lane, a “make-out maze” in a dark, abandoned parking garage. While Rob’s illusions about the blonde are lost there, the other girls are enjoyably strong and spunky as they test boundaries at other parties. For every boy’s boast among the guys, the girls set the record straight to each other, and the sisters tease Scott’s twin fantasies before they quash them in order to encourage him to see them as individuals.