Coley Sohn's first feature film Sassy Pants demonstrates that she is a director to start paying attention to. This is the poignant tale of Bethany Pruitt (Ashley Rickards) who is valedictorian of her class, which is: her one-student, home school class! Stuck with younger brother Shayne under their spry but incredibly oppressive mother's (Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad) thumb, Bethany’s only escape is reading a teen fashion ‘zine courtesy of her absentee gay dad. She covets each edition, covertly re-styling taboo fashions into the pages of her treasured scrapbook.

Bethany reluctantly succumbs to her mom’s post-graduation mandate to get an accounting degree from an online university, but when she sneaks out with handsome neighbor Hector, who she has an eye for, Mom freaks out and retaliates by destroying her beloved scrapbook. Finally broken and still wearing her pajamas, Bethany catches the nearest Greyhound to her dad’s. Will Bethany finally catch a break?

Life at dad Dale’s (Diedrich Bader, The Drew Carey Show) mobile home is no picnic either. Finally away from home, she starts to form a strong bond with her father’s fun-loving, much younger boyfriend, Chip (hilariously played by Haley Joel Osmont, The Sixth Sense). But Dad’s outbursts weigh heavily on Bethany, so she finds solace and a burgeoning independence by selling clothes at a trendy retail chain called Jail Bait. Alas, even here her co-workers cause her a whole new set of real world, navigation problems.

When Bethany learns about the Fashion Art Technology Institute in San Francisco, she sees a chance to finally break free once and for all and forge her own brighter future. How Bethany gets there will surely redefine her and her quirky family; it might even update her wardrobe. With an astutely cast ensemble—capped off by chain-smoking Jenny O’Hara as grandma—the film’s core is a wonderful story of what is passed down through three generations of self-reliant, remarkable women.