Not Like Everyone Else

A free-thinking student gets accused of witchcraft in the wake of the Columbine high-school shootings in this made-for-cable docudrama. The child of working-class parents who struggle to keep their kids in a good school district, Brandi Blackbear (Alia Shawkat) hopes to one day become a horror novelist. But after a run-in with a snobby classmate (Laura Wiggins) who accuses her of creating a "hit list" of enemies, overzealous administrators decide she's a threat and suspend her for the rest of the semester, confiscating her creative-writing notebooks while they're at it. Dropped by her nerdy pal Casey (Simone Carter), Brandi eventually returns to school and finds solace with new buddy Noah (Josh Blaylock). But after Brandi begins researching the pagan religion of Wicca for a short story, one of her teachers (J.D. Evermore) falls ill and she finds herself accused of witchcraft. It's only with the help of an ACLU attorney (Gary Grubbs) and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that Brandi manages to defend her civil rights and stand up for her freedom of expression. Directed by horror and TV-movie vet Tom McLoughlin, Not Like Everyone Else co-stars Illeana Douglas and Eric Schweig as Brandi's conflicted parents. It premiered July 10, 2006 on the Lifetime cable network.