La mia rivale

Angela Delvecchiois is a young girl who comes from quite a poor family. When she moves to a rich town called Montevista with her family, she of course wants to be accepted and to become friends with everyone, including Stacy, the leader of the most prestigious clique at her new high school. Angela really admirers Stacy. After Stacy makes fun of a strange girl named Monica though, Angela defends her, which leaves Angela becoming Stacys target to pick on. Still wanting to become friends with Stacy, Angela makes up a story in order to meet Stacy. When they do meet, Angela tells Stacy that she really likes her and than asks Stacy to come to a party with her. Stacy refuses and tells Angela that she's going to tell everyone what a weirdo she is. In rage, Angela stabs Stacy with a kitchen knife and ends up killing her. The trial for Stacys death is of course very big, with no one knowing who the real killer of Stacys is and many people assuming it was Monica. All this at first, of course.

Tori Spelling and Kellie Martin play the lead roles here and they both do a great job, especially Spelling. Jenna Leigh Green also has a small role and is good too.

Death Of A Cheerleader/A Friend to Die For is a fact-based movie and it's really good. It just shows what people do just to fit in. I give the movie a 10/10.

When Miramount High School cheerleader Kirsten Costas ran across the street from her front yard in Orinda, California in June 1984 having been fatally stabbed by her schoolmate Bernadette Protti and seeking help from her neighbor she probably had no idea that this review would be written. The way it happened was this: Randall Sullivan of ROLLING STONE Magazine wrote a moving article about the case (focusing largely on Bernadette Protti's dramatic confession to the police) that appeared in print about a year after the murder had occurred and was published with the title "Death of a Cheerleader". The story got such attention that Sullivan was hired to write a screenplay for a made-for-t.v. movie after Protti was paroled, depicting the events fictitiously. It was first aired on NBC as A FRIEND TO DIE FOR, but has also been aired on cable television, both under its original title and under the title of the article that inspired it. In the film, Tori Spelling loosely por- trays Costas as snobby Stacy Lockwood; Kellie Martin loosely portrays Protti as Angela Delveccio and Orinda is replaced with the fictional town of Santa Mira, California. The murder is depicted in the opening scene and the action then reverts to the life of Delveccio over the course of about a year. Although she firsts tries to cover up what she did, the depth and sincerity of the remorse that she eventually expresses are very moving. This film is worth watching several times.

This is a story that shows us how far people will go to avoid being bullied by their peers and belonging which occurs frequently in girls. We see Angela who is an insecure teenager that strives to be popular. Stacy is the classic bully, one who suffers from the "Princess Syndrome" and everything seems to go her way despite her behavior. This shows that bullying DOES get out of hand and that kids will go to any lengths to avoid becoming victims or targets of Peer Abuse. A really good film that exhibits Peer Abuse in girls during the teenage years.

I think Kellie Martin should have won an Emmy for this film. She plays Angela, a pretty but mousy-type attending a wealthy-area high school. She wants to fit in with the rich, snobby, popular crowd but is not like them herself. She comes from a large, devoutly Catholic family who "have what they need" but little else. Angela tries out for cheerleader and fails, for the Writers' Club and fails, even though she's a good writer, and this destroys her self-esteem. Add to that her wanting desperately to befriend the most popular girl in school Stacy (Tori Spelling), who is also the meanest and snobbiest, and being cruelly rejected as weird. You totally sympathize with Angela and see how she could have been driven to such a desperate act. Martin's riveting performance continues post-tragedy, as you see the guilt eating her up inside. This is truly an awesome made-for-TV movie. I highly recommend it.

Kellie Martin did a masterful job playing the role of an awkward teenage girl desperately yearning for acceptance from the "In" crowd in high school. Two scenes that totally sold me on how convincing the role of Angela was played was when Angela was being dropped off for the ski trip and, in front of the other kids, Angela's mother goes to clean Angela's face with a handkerchief. Embarrassed, Angela moves her mother's arm and storms off to collect her bag. As Angela lifts her bag, she looks back to her mother and gives her a classic "Why did you do that, mom?" look that I think only Kellie Martin can make convincing. Finally, after being initiated by the Larks, Angela and the other girls go off driving looking for guys to kiss. Angela gets snubbed as she attempts to kiss an elder gentlemen sitting in his car. Reflecting on her public humiliation, Angela has a heart to heart talk with her sister about her wanting to be someone else. Kellie Martin played the role masterfully!