History Film / TheHairyBird

* AdultsAreUseless: The elderly security guard is asleep instead of making sure students aren’t going off campus to play hooky. He and his cohorts are ineffectual at quelling a student uprising. Averted with Miss [=McVane=].

* ExtravertedNerd: Conrad Bateman, Verena's dorky assigned date.

* MeddlingParents: Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer sit on the Board of Trustees and are the most vocal supporters of Miss Godard's merger with St. Ambrose. Their true motive for the merger is revealed to be financial in nature, as Mr. Sawyer, who is in real estate, wants the land the campus is on for his sub-division.

* IAteWhat: Frosty accepts Verena’s offer of getting high with pills and Coke. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] after Verena explains the pills are actually Midols and not benzodiazepines as Frosty assumed. Frosty asks for another Midol. As expected, the Midol makes him drowsy and dizzy.

* FightingForAHomeland: Even though Verena can be [[RebelliousSpirit rebellious]], she sees Miss Godard’s as a sanctuary from her strained home life, as her parents have just divorced.

-->'''Tinka:''' I'm going to be on the cover of "Moi" magazine as a famous actress-folksinger-slut, and Momo will be my doctor, and Tinka will be my shrink.

* MacGyvering: Momo concocts 1000-proof alcohol using equipment from her chemistry class.

* ParentalObliviousness: Tinka's mom, while talking to her, is not even paying attention what Tinka's doing, and doesn't even notice her [[spoiler: running off with Snake]] at the end. Abby's parents don't seem attentive towards their daughter either, and are more concerned with pushing the merger forward as members of the Board of Trustees.

* BoardingSchool. Miss Godard’s Preparatory School for Girls.
* BookEnds: Per the epilogue, the film's young leads end up with careers and interests that are ironic considering how the characters are presented at the beginning. [[spoiler: Odie, a smoker, becomes a Congresswoman and fights the tobacco industry. Tweety, a bulimic, becomes a psychologist who educates about eating disorders. The science-minded Momo invents the first male oral contraceptive. Verena, besides starting a magazine, is no longer opposed to the opposite gender. The boy-crazy Tinka later comes out as gay. Abby, the straight-laced goody-goody, turns to a life of crime]].

* HiddenDepths: Though Tinka is presented as [[ReallyGetsAround the slutty one]], she is also very protective of her friends and defends Tweety from Verena's mocking. Afer Tweety is pranked by the St. Ambrose boys, Tinka angrily searches for the culprits.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: When Verena questions Odie why she's so fixated on losing her virginity, Odie replies that she's a teen and that's what teenagers think about. Verena also accuses her fellow D.A.R. members of being in support of a merger because of their boy-craziness.

* HumbleGoal: Played for laughs when the girls state their ultimate goals to the D.A.R.
-->'''Verena:''' I'm going to start my own magazine like "Vogue." I'm going to call it "Moi."
-->'''Tweety:''' I'm going to be a psychiatrist.
-->'''Tinka:''' I'm going to be on the cover of "Moi" magazine as a famous actress-painter-folksinger-slut, and Momo will be my doctor, and Tinka will be my shrink.
* IAteWhat: Frosty accepts Verena’s offer of getting high with pills and Coke. Subverted after Verena explains the pills are actually Midols and not benzodiazepines as Frosty assumed. Frosty asks for another Midol. As expected, the Midol makes him drowsy and dizzy.

* NotMyLuckyDay: On the day of the school's coed festivities, Abby has her date stolen by Verena, her stockings rip multiple times, and she’s thrown into the hokey pokey circle by drunk St. Ambrose boys.

* ReallyGetsAround: Tinka is the promiscuous one, having had four pregnancy scares.

* SaveOurStudents: The girls of Miss Godard's attempt to save their school from being merged with St. Ambrose Academy, an all-boys school whose students' grades are significantly lower than those of Miss Godard's.

* TokenMinority: Lampshaded when Miss Godard girls are paired up individually with St. Ambrose boys. The only black student at St. Ambrose is paired with a Japanese girl, the only student of color at Miss Godard's.
* TrojanGauntlet: Dennis was supposed to bring condoms to his rendezvous with Odie, but instead, he brings a can of contraceptive foam, explaining "This is something new. The girl puts it in." A hilarious sequence involves the characters physically grappling with the can of foam.

** Miss Godard's [[spoiler: remains a single-sex institution to this day]].

* YellowSashOfPower: Abby proudly wears the badge of stars she was awarded for being elected to the self-government committee nine times. Subverted when she rips off the badge.

* HateAtFirstSight: Odie doesn't gel with her roommates Veronica and Tinka, who tease her about her boyfriend Dennis and go through her belongings. This changes when Odie impresses the two with her wit and the D.A.R. attempts to forge a weekend pass for Odie.

* CensoredTitle: The film's original title ''The Hairy Bird'', which [[VulgarHumor alludes to male genitalia]], was deemed to offensive for Creator/MiramaxFilms, so the film was distributed in the U.S. under ''All I Wanna Do''. In Canada and the U.K., the film was released as ''Strike!'' Australia was the only territory where the film was released under its original title.

* BrutalHonesty: Miss [=McVane=], who is a well of sarcastic one-liners, talks about the prospect of Miss Godard's merger with St. Ambrose because of financial problems:

* SaveOurStudents: The girls of Miss Godard's attempt to save their school from being merged with St. Ambrose Academy, an all-boys school whose students' grades significantly lower than those of Miss Godard's.

Odette meets the dynamic young women of the DAR, Daughters of the American Ravioli — Verena (Dunst), Tinka (Keena), Tweety (Matarazzo), and Momo (Creator/MerrittWever) — and they become friends. The girls get together to eat stolen canned food, mock upright hall monitor Abby (Cook), and share their most secret desires — and then pledge to help one another achieve them, no matter what the cost. One night they find out that the school is going co-ed, joining St. Ambrose Academy, due to lack of funding. Once it's proved that the boys can't be trusted, the girls mount an elaborate scheme to stop the boys’ invasion, hoping that they can save Miss Godard's from becoming "Miss Gonads".

* {{Beatnik}}: The Flat Critters.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Abby, to her mother Page. When Page demands Abby break up the student uprising, Abby tells her off.

* ComingOutStory: [[spoiler: It is revealed in the epilogue that Tinka has come out as a lesbian in a televised Barbara Walters special]].
* DeadpanSnarker: Verena. Also Odie, Tinka, Momo, and Tweety.

* ImprovisedWeapon: The girls of Miss Godard's use field hockey and lacrosse sticks to fend off security guards.

* ParentalObliviousness: Tinka's mom, while talking to her, is not even paying attention what Tinka's doing, and doesn't even notice her [[spoiler: running off with Snake]] at the end.

* TheBet:
-->'''Schumacher:''' We have about 80 dollars in the kitty. It goes to whoever's date has the largest set of nay-nays. You must furnish proof. Our roving photographer will find you.

* TrojanGauntlet: A hilarious sequence involves the characters physically grappling with a can of contraceptive foam.

* {{Unishment}}: Verena targets Frosty because his connections (his grandfather is the head of the Board of Trustees) could spell further disrepute for St. Ambrose. Frosty being caught drunk and fraternizing with a Miss Godard's student in her dorm room would surely end in his expulsion. However, [[spoiler: it’s revealed expulsion is exactly what Frosty wants]].

* YellowSashOfPower: Abby proudly wears the badge of stars she was awarded for being elected to the self-government committee nine times.

* BefriendingTheEnemy: Verena befriends St. Ambrose boy Frosty in an attempt to put him in a compromising position.

* HeelFaceTurn: Abby, [[spoiler: initially in support of Miss Godard's merger, comes to resent it and supports the students on strike]].
* HideousHangoverCure: Ipecac syrup. Verena and Momo [[spoiler: give the Ipecac to St. Ambrose boys to induce them to vomit, under the guise it will help the boys' hangovers]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Mr. Dewey, [[spoiler: who preys on his female students, is framed by the girls as a cross-dresser with S&M catalogs, resulting in his termination from the school]]. The St. Ambrose boys, [[spoiler: particularly Todd Winslow and his cronies, get beat up by the Flat Critters and have their clothes stolen]].

* NakedPeopleTrappedOutside: A few of the boys from St. Ambrose become these after the Flat Critters attack them.

* PornStash: Or what Ms. [=McVane=] and Mrs. Dewey think is Mr. Dewey's porn stash, is actually from Verena's father's stash.

* YellowSashOfPower: Abby proudly wears her badge of awarded stars.
* YouAreGrounded: After Odette fakes a note from her mom to go out on the town with her friends, Ms. [=McVane=] talks with her mom on the phone and figures out it was a ruse. Odette is sent before the student council for a hearing and punishment, which is to be "grounded" for the rest of the year.

* Beatnik: The Flat Critters.

-->'''Verena:'''Right. Just imagine, we'll have to wash our hair every night. We'll have to sleep on rollers til our scalps bleed. Then we'll have to get up at six every morning for the comb out. Your lungs will be lined with hairspray. Then you need all this equipment to push up the tits and blitz the zits and spray the pits! Then you stagger into class and you look perfect but you're exhausted, you're too tired to even think but that's okay the teachers they won't call on you anyway, also you don't want to be smarter than the boys. They don't like that, so to wake yourself up you drink some coffee at lunch but don't eat the food. You'll be on a permanent diet!

-->'''Schumacher:'''We have about 80 dollars in the kitty. It goes to whoever's date has the largest set of nay-nays. You must furnish proof. Our roving photographer will find you.

* WomenAreWiser: Verena and Momo [[spoiler: manage to show the St. Ambrose students in a bad light. The eventual strike by Miss Godard's students is successful]].

* YouAreGrounded: After Odette fakes a note from her mom to go out on the town with her friends, Ms. [=McVane=] talks with her mom on the phone, and finds out it was a ruse. So, Odette is sent before the student council for a hearing and punishment. They "ground" her for the rest of the year.

* AlphaBitch: Abby.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Abby, to Page Singer. After Page announces that the school is going coed, the girls rebel, but Page wants Abby to take charge of them, at which point Abby tells her off.
* DeadpanSnarker: Verena

* HeelFaceTurn: Abby
* HideousHangoverCure: Ipecac syrup.
* HowDidThatGetInThere: The plot against Mr. Dewey

* NewTransferStudent: Odette "Odie"
* OneGenderSchool

* PluckyGirl: Odie. And Verena.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue
* YellowSashOfPower: Abby

* BoardingSchool. Miss Godard’s Preparatory School for Girls

* ExecutiveMeddling: Miramax Films picked up the film for distribution but ultimately did not give the film publicity and refused to release it wide.

* HideousHangoverCure: Ipecac

* LipstickAndLoadMontage

* BoardingSchool

''The Hairy Bird'' (also known as ''Strike!'' and ''All I Wanna Do'') is a 1998 teen comedy film written and directed by Sarah Kernochan, with a cast including Gaby Hoffmann, Lynn Redgrave, Creator/KirstenDunst, Creator/MonicaKeena, Creator/HeatherMatarazzo, and Creator/RachaelLeighCook.

Odette meets the dynamic young women of the DAR, Daughters of the American Ravioli — Verena (Dunst), Tinka (Keena), Tweety (Matarazzo), and Momo (Merritt Wever) — and they become friends. The girls get together to eat stolen canned food, mock upright hall monitor Abby (Cook), and share their most secret desires — and then pledge to help one another achieve them, no matter what the cost. One night they find out that the school is going co-ed, joining St. Ambrose Academy, due to lack of funding. Once it's proved that the boys can't be trusted, the girls mount an elaborate scheme to stop the boys’ invasion, hoping that they can save Miss Godard's from becoming "Miss Gonads".

* SpiritedYoungLady: Verena and Odie

Also known as ''All I Wanna Do'' (USA, new title)\\
Also known as ''Strike!'' (original title)

In this film set in 1963, Odette Sinclair is sent by her parents to an all-girls boarding school, Miss Godard's Preparatory School for Girls, after planning to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, Dennis. Odette meets the dynamic young women of the DAR, Daughters of the American Ravioli — Verena, Tinka, Tweety and Momo — and they become friends. The girls get together to eat stolen canned food and share their most secret desires — and then pledge to help one another achieve them, no matter what the cost. One night they find out that the school is going co-ed, joining St. Ambrose Academy, due to lack of funding. Once it's proved that the boys can't be trusted, the girls mount an elaborate scheme to stop the boys’ invasion, hoping that they can save Miss Godard's from becoming "Miss Gonads".

The movie is based loosely on writer/director Sarah Kernochan's experiences at Rosemary Hall around that time.

* HeyItsThatGuy: The lead Flat Critter is a young [[MadMen Vincent Kartheiser]].

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: Verena accuses Tweety of being this around boys.

* AnachronismStew: The cherry-picker truck used by the Flat Critters to get to Tinka's window was a Ford C-Series cab-over. While this truck was manufactured between 1957 and 1990, the cowl insignia combined with reflectors indicates this is a model made after 1968, five years after this movie takes place.