Brandi Blackbear is a pupil in a "top High School" in Oklahoma. She is half Native American, loves gothic horror stories and dresses in black.Nowadays, no one would care much about these kind of things. High school could go well for her, since she's a good student and a gifted young writer. Too bad the story takes place just after Columbine, her principal cares for nothing but keeping a good reputation, her best friend only wants to be popular, her father doesn't take enough care of her because of her gender, her brother behaves like a Jerkass towards her, her only real friend goes overboard on a regular basis and always brings her problems and her mother is great, but can't do anything.
A manipulative girl pretending to be sweet and hiding much darker secret personality traits enters, plays the narrow-minded principal and gets Brandi expelled. When she comes back, her high school has become a modern replica of Salem. And everyone wants her to be the witch in this story...
Tropes found in Not Like Everyone Else:
- Affably Evil: Kimberly tries to write an article about Brandi's trial, and, seemingly, to befriend her, and could be seen during the whole movie as a naive, yet dangerously zealot and shallow bigot. Whether she is this or manipulative remains unclear...
- All Take and No Give: Brandi and her brother, for most of the movie. Brandi and her father, initially.
- Amoral Attorney: Manipulate testifiers? Check. Work for the villains in a witch trial, yet mentions his son? Check. Faux Affably Evil? Check. Turns testimonies to his advantage with very bad arguments and no real point? Check.
- Anti-Villain: The Innocent Bigot assistant, the possible Love Interest who sides with the villains out of fear after witnessing Brandi's anger.
- Beware the Nice Ones : Brandi's mom, Toni: "Perhaps you'll finally take care of your daughter!". Almost often in a powerful Mama Bear mode.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Brandi wears all black clothes, with rather morbid interests in writing horror stories. She's actually a harmless, sweet person, but this helps demonize her in others' views post-Columbine.
- Dramatization: It's based on the real case of Brandi Blackbear, though the events are compressed since this actually took place over four years.
- Driven to Madness: Momentarly, Brandi snaps at a girl who accuses her of being a witch, for the second time. She takes the blame for a tornado and for a disappeared family, simulating an evil and disturbed laugh.
- Easily Forgiven: Casey dumps Brandi. Casey participates in spreading rumors about Brandi being a witch. Brandi gets expelled. Brandi comes back. Casey gets dumped by her new friends and accused of being violent. Brandi makes her remark that their situations and behaviors weren't so different, and Casey (mitigating this trope) sincerely apologizes. They get on well after that, and Casey becomes a much better (notably more supportive) friend.
- Goth: Brandi wears all black and writes horror stories. This is enough, along with her reading about Wicca to make her demonized by other students and even teachers.
- Heritage Disconnect: Brandi is half Cherokee from her dad, but because he doesn't include her while attending their rituals with her brother she has no real connection with their culture at first. This is implied to start changing when they've become closer at the end as her dad brings her to one at last.
- Honor Before Reason: Brandi's mom, who could get well-needed money by asking for a settlement, but prefers suing the high school...
- I Just Want to Have Friends: This is a deconstruction. But instead of being about how a protagonist is doing anything to get the approval of a bad teenager and her Girl Posse and accidentally hurts her friend, it is about the best friend of a protagonist and she (only a little but deliberately) turns on her, the keypoint of the deconstruction being that she cares for the number of friends and their popularit y, but initially not for the quality of the friendship. But she is a very lovable character and is shown as behaving like most people expect her to, and it is clear that the realisator refuses that we blame her in the end, so the blame and the deconstruction are more about the expectation she lives up to than about her personality.
- Innocent Bigot: Perhaps Kimberly, as far as "innocent" could go with her. "Naively self-serving without getting the consequences". Perhaps...
- Light Is Not Good: All the Christian fundamentalists and manifestants, Kimberly, the principal, the attorney. They dress, speak and act with a light, non-threatening manner, yet always distinctly creepy/annoying quality about them.
- Oh, Crap!: Brandi's (and the viewer's) reaction when the assistant asks her if she thinks of God when she practices sorcery, prompting a realization that this is going to be a witch hunt.
- Parental Neglect: Brandi's dad pays far more attention to her brother, taking him to Cherokee ceremonies with her left behind at home. He apologizes for this later.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Brandi's mom, and Toni's, against an Amoral Attorney.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Brandi gives one to her friend Kyle. She calls him out on his careless behaviour, and tells him that him seeing everything as "fun" is nice in his own life, but not in hers. However, it is recognized as unfair from her, as he is basically the most honest and spontaneous friend frequenting her.
- The Snark Knight: Brandi and Kyle are initially played like this. He is sure to lampshade the "only independent minds Surrounded by Idiots" part and analyzes why he thinks it is the case when he incriminates the other students' lack of knowledge of the world outside what they learn in school and in the church. Brandi criticizes his view, noting that his superiority mostly comes from his inability to take his life seriously.
- The Unfavorite: Brandi clearly is second fiddle to her brother with their dad at first. She complains how he often ignores her, along with her mom. He later apologizes and they become closer.
- Witch Hunt: Brandi is subjected to one as a result of being a Goth who's demonized by other students who engage in malicious slander or rumor-mongering against her. It culminates with the accusation of her putting a curse on one teacher when he's rushed to the hospital (for appendicitis, they later learn). Her dad incredulously notes that, in the year 2000, his daughter's being accused of literal witchcraft.
