Pretty Smart (1987)
Directed by Dimitri Logothetis
Written by Dan Hoskins
IMDB
Pretty Smart presents itself at the beginning as a fairy tale. The only resemblance to that kind of story is that it takes place in a castle and the pacing is weird, causing the story to seem more lucid.
Over the opening credits a small story plays out where Daphne (Tricia Leigh Fisher)is arrested. I really liked this, as directors don't take advantage of opening credits very often. From here the story picks up as Daphne is sent to an all girls school in another country (somewhere in Europe, I don't quite remember) with her sister. She doesn't quite fit in, but she becomes fast friends with a group of misfits.
The headmaster, Crawley, spies on the girls using hidden cameras and sells cocaine. He pits the girls against each other using the old "divide on conquer" theory. I don't know how that is supposed to work as it would potentially create greater problems with all the fighting/feuding. Regardless, the cameras are there for a steady stream of nudity.
Crawley and Daphne don't see eye-to-eye. He favors the "preens" over the "subs" as the movie calls the groups. Preens are preppier girls who are sexually loose, and the subs are girls who dress like a colorblind Madonna.
During Daphne's birthday party, Crawley steals her present, a boombox. The subs band together to sneak into Crawley's office and get the stereo back. They discover the monitors where Crawley watches the girls shower and fornicate and the videos he shows his drug buying friends. Then they witness Crawley buying drugs and scheduling a pickup date. They decide to get even with him, so they steal his drugs (which were planted in Daphne's sister's bags for a trip to Rome) and he immediately gives up and leaves the academy.
The story also includes a teacher all of the girls love who gets fired for taking Daphne and her friends on a night on the town. She becomes the new headmaster. Plus there's a running "joke" about tourists being shown around the castle their school is leasing.
This movie is weird and probably has about 10-15 minutes cut out of it, which could probably tie up a lot of loose ends. I had to make a lot of assumptions during this film, but I still liked it. It's a movie for teenage girls, I'd say, but it is full of gratuitous nudity. This is a movie without a real audience, but definitely worth checking out if you like silly 80s movies.
7/10
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