Four Twenty

Synopsis Latty is about to be 17, and her birthday just so happens to land on 420. Latty is your 16-year-old typical nerd, but who wants to be a nerd? Not Latty who is always getting picked on for her plain looks, perfect grades, bad fashion sense and not keeping up with everyday trends. Latty however knows all too well what four Twenty really means, because it is her own parents that celebrates that day the most by going away, being high and not accepting that their daughter's birthday falls on their favorite holiday ever. Latty has never even gotten a birthday present because her parents are always too high to remember. Latty has never smoked nor has her best and only friends Mike and Sky. Because of the history behind her birthday and her personal past experiences Latty is not a very confident girl and admires her older sister who's openly a slut and is often criticized yet never changes. Not surprisingly, in the past Latty has always struggled to have a good birthday because everyone is always celebrating, but for all the wrong reasons. Latty has always dreaded her birthday and tells her friends that this year will be like any other year but Mike and Sky are feeling different. Her friends convince her that a big birthday party is the way to go to gain popularity and save their social life to possibly have one normal high school year before they graduate next year. After days of convincing, Latty is finally on board. They try different tactics to fit in to pretend to be cool such as failing test purposely, wearing different clothes and using the local cool kids slang, when that doesn't work Mike has a better idea. Mike's plan B is to tells everyone about Latty's birthday being on 420 and how she's going to have the biggest birthday party that consist of unlimited amounts of marijuana at no cost. once news gets around the school everyone is planning to attend Latty's birthday party with unrealistic expectations. When Latty finds about the rumor Mike has started she becomes upset but realizes that they are too deep into the rumor, that it's best to just go along with it. First objective is to get money for the weed, to do so they hang on the corner of a liquor store and exploit their talents, or the lack thereof in order to get money. They realize people will only pay them to shut up, and this is how they make over $100. Before the party Mike comes to his connect which is his dad's Weed Man, his connect assures him the hundred plus is not enough to provide a whole party with unlimited amounts of weed and that he doesn’t serve minors so that he feels like a hero. As an alternative Mike's connect offers fake weed, fake blunts that he sales to other kids like mike trying to only look cool. After multiple plans fail they fall back on Mike's original plan to go ahead with the fake weed. Latty doesn't want too much involvement in the party but when she finds out how excited Jimmy is to be there she finds enough reason to continue with her plan to fool all the kids into attending her big and first ever birthday party. As the day approaches that she begins to the become more worried at the same time enjoying a glimpse of popularity, something they have never experienced. On the day of the party Mike gets caught by the cops and is placed in jail, trying to convince the cops that the weed is not real they hold him in a Cell as the cops get down to the bottom of it by being test dummies for the fake blunts. Sky and Latty tries to stall the kids to have as much fun as possible before noticing that no one is high and that Mike still hasn't come with the drugs. After a while people begin to rant and complain that they've been waiting for hours sober, as their original intentions were to be high the entire day. Latty hides upstairs and waits for the Failing party to be over as Mike comes through the door to save the party temporarily. The fake weed seems to be working for the time being, everyone is enjoying fake blunts and is convinced that they are actually high after sky Pays a midget to pretend he really isn't there, people then begin to think they're on some type of "trip" and that this is a different type of weed. It only takes a couple hours before Kathy (Jimmy's ex-girlfriend who is still in love with him) tells the whole party to think for a second. She mentions that she doesn't feel high and that no one else really feels High, the blunt are made of Swisher paper and that the blunts are even unrollable. Kathy excitingly makes the entire party aware that the weed is not real. Mike and sky tries to convince the party that they are indeed high but it doesn't take long for people to realize that something is not right about what they are smoking. Sky and Mike flea from the party leaving Latty alone to face her fears. Latty reminisces about all of her birthdays from a little girl until last year all of which her parents celebrated her birthday without her as high as possible, never provided her a cake and always forgetting that it was her big day, she remembers how all of the cool people she's always wanted to be friends with are downstairs upset with her. Latty's sister walks into the party after her boyfriend has been caught cheating on her and goes up to Latty's room and finds her hiding. Latty explains that everyone is downstairs finding out she's a fraud and wanting to jump her and that she will never be able to live this down. Latty's sister gives her a little bit of encouragement but refuses to stand up for her and tells her she has to do it herself and leaves. She gets enough courage to face her peers head on and accept whatever comes next. She come to the party of angry teenagers and begins to explain and has already counted her losses, this will be the worst of the worst birthdays for her, but Jimmy comes to her rescue. She explains to her peers that she always wanted to be popular and she didn't want to let anyone down. Everyone at the party still does not accept her apology and wants her to suffer. Her Crush Jimmy on the other hand takes up for her and Saves the day, he tells his ex-girlfriend that she can leave and tells the rest of the party that he will protect her in all circumstances and that if they don't like it they can leave. Jimmy tries to get everyone to sing Happy Birthday, when this is rejected as well Jimmy decides that he'll call his real connect to make everyone happy, everyone agrees and forgive Latty and she enjoys the rest of her birthday with her very first kiss from her Crush Jimmy The premise of the film is to exaggerate yet show reality of what a lot of teenagers go through, the stresses of not being able to be yourself and still being accepted, the internal fight to give in or to stay true to yourself. If everyone is doing something and you are not into it, do you do it too for the acceptance? In the real world people will often behave differently if under the influence that they are consuming something that is making them behave a certain way (ie: acting drunk, when you are not drunk but you are under the impression that you have been drinking) This comedy is to underline the wisdom of self-identity by understanding that trying to be something that you are not truly will always fail and that facing who you are to the world will always end with internal happiness. Latty has a huge character Arc, from the beginning of the film wanting to be accepted and changing who she was to be cool to slowly realizing there was going to be trouble with pretending to be something she was not. Although she goes through with a party she did not agree with at the end she ultimately realizes that the only way to be happy is to be yourself and to be confident enough to let people know that you will not change for them. She begins as a frail insecure weak-minded individual and she exits the script as a stronger young adult ready to face the world and all that is against her and she does so with Jimmy by her side making going into her senior year a success popular or not.