Review: A Star is Born in “Easy A”
Will Gluck‘s female centric teen comedy Easy A is the latest high school satire to reach movie theaters across the land. Emma Stone stars as Olive Penderghast, a regular high school wallflower who is neither popular nor an outcast. Partly to avoid spending the weekend camping with the hippie parents of her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and partly to impress her, she pretends to have a date with a community college boy. Instead, Olive simply spends the weekend in her bedroom, nail polishing her dog’s paws and slowly obsessing over a greeting card that plays Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocketful of Sunshine.”
On Monday, Olive makes up a little white lie about her losing her virginity over the weekend but the rumor that she is “easy” soon spreads around the school. Suddenly, the once anonymous Olive becomes very much in demand for all the wrong reasons. Being who she is, Olive is more surprised at the new-found attention than embarrassed. Hence, when a bullied gay friend bribes her to pretend to have some raunchy and noisy heterosexual sex within earshot of the entire school, she reluctantly accepts. Soon enough, Olive’s vocation as a fictitious tramp takes off as the idea snowballs with a number of school outcasts paying her all kind of gift cards to pretend to sleep with them. As rumors spread and her notoriety grows, things soon start to completely get out of hand as her life begins to parallel Hester Prynne’s in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
Easy A is an intelligent and enjoyable teen comedy much in the veins of movies like Election, Clueless and Mean Girls. Although its flaws prevent it from joining the ranks of those subtle classics, this movie does capture the silly games of contemporary high school life and how girls are forced to walk that fine line between being attractive but not skanky. The boys who get to “sleep” with Olive are celebrated as studs while she gets the other side of this double standard and is looked down with disgust. The premises of the story may sound a bit archaic and ridiculous and in some ways they are. However, the fact that it portrays such a strong and witty female character who is willing to submit herself to the mockery and disdain of her schoolmates, makes for a refreshing film in an era dominated by male centric teen comedies.
Indeed, this comedy could easily have turned into a crude or vulgar teen flick like so many others but thankfully, it doesn’t with not as much as a kiss being shown on-screen. Will Gluck shares his admiration for cinematic classics of the 1980′s movies, paying homage to them repeatedly, and he isn’t afraid to make fun of taboo subject such as religion or teacher/student relationships. The filmmaker also wisely stays away from crude jokes and slapstick comedy, favoring more genuine comedy of wit and manners while relying on the charisma of his performers, most notably his likable lead actress.
In her short career, Emma Stone has appeared in movies such as Superbad and Zombieland as the main character’s girlfriend. She brought unexpected sass and charm that probably were more than required from these roles. Easy A, however, is her first vehicle and she confidently carries the film from the first instant. Stone is innately sassy; she has a grainy, husky voice as well as a dry and intelligent wit about her that allows her to deliver zingers very effectively. Her unconventional beauty and offbeat sense of humor help her in shaping Olive as a free-spirited, high self-esteem, high school wallflower. Moreover, Stone shows a good range of emotions throughout the movie, playing awkward, charming, vulnerable, funny, cute or sexy at will. While it is not very credible for Hollywood to attempt to pass a smart and funny cutie pie like her as a 17-yr old who has never been kissed, she almost pulls this impossible feat off.
In supporting roles, the adult cast is quite sensational. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s eccentric parents are a match made in comedic heaven. They play very liberal yet caring and responsible parents with a great sense of humor throughout and they have some of the most hilarious lines in the movie. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing those two team up again. Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow round out the sarcastic adult cast as Olive’s caring teacher and his student counselor wife while Amanda Bynes plays the bubbly and archetypal Bible-thumping Christian.
The singular issue in this movie is how it is framed within the overly predictable concept of the webcam confession which makes for heavy use of voice over as well as a near-constant stream of pop music montage. The central plot feels unfocused and doesn’t leave much of an impression once the curtain are lowered. It would have really helped if the movie was as dark and incisive as Election, or had a more consistently funny script as in Mean Girls.
As such, Easy A falls short of joining the ranks of teen comedies classic but it is an enjoyable, charming and wicked watch, powered by Emma Stone’s star-making performance.
B
(7.0/10)
Notes: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material, 92 minutes, $8 million production budget.
19 Comments
With 8 million as budget this will be a solid hit at the Boxoffice. Great review i Love Emma Stone, I have seen her in several parts before but never realized it was the same girl.
Yea it looks like they will recover all cost in the first two days of opening. It should be an above-average hit although nothing close to Superbad and Mean Girls.
Apparently it has taken in 18,2 million so far this weekend. I don’t know if thats sunday included. But its great numbers for not having established stars in it.
Yes, it’s an above average open, it should continue to do well in the next 2 or 3 weeks with good word of mouth.
I thought it was pretty funny, but then, I’m in high school, and some of this stuff is insanely accurate (although everybody in this, like in all teen comedies, look, like, thirty, and of course they all must be categorized).
Stone looks promising… but I lovvvve Mean Girls. I’d like to say I love it wholeheartedly, but because it’s called Mean Girls, I have to tell people it’s a guilty pleasure. LOL
Now I know why they are bringing the film here. It’s a teen comedy LOL But still, looking forward to it.
Does any of you feel you enjoy films much more when you know little about it?? Expectations are such tricky things~~~
MG is too awesome to be called a guilty pleasure
And I do enjoy films more when I know very little about them. I usually don’t read any review until I see the movie.
That’s why I’ve skipped most of your review. I didn’t even know it was a high school film xD
Mean Girls is so Fetch.
I’m with castor. If i have expectations or have read up on a film I am often disapointed. The best feeling there is is to actually choose a film by a poster when you weren’t even thinking of going to the cinema. It doesn’t have to be great to be a nice experience then. Its something with the spontanious feel to it. I love to see a movie that I hardly know anything about (as long as its not a costume drama).
That happened to me in 2008. First with All About Lily Chou Chou, which I saw because I was so superficial and thought that the poster was so beautifully simple.
And then complete accident with Memories of Matsuko, which I saw because it was included in an actor’s filmography, but never showed up xD
And before that… maybe in 2003, when I bought Grave of the Fireflies just because I liked the cover! LOL. I cried my eyes out that first time. Ahhh, beautiful experiences and memories.
Aside from the exchanges between Olive’s parents (brilliant work from Tucci and Clarkson)I just failed to find anything appealing about this. It was kind of directionless and was one of those movies where the trailer really cherry picked the best parts.
Still I had some legitimate laughs and agree with you that Stone really has a star-making performance. I’m not sure John Hughes would feel particularly happy that his films inspired this (and ripped of iconic elements too). Cute concept and loose take on a classic novel but still, forgettable and even my wife gave it a 4:P
The movie certainly felt a bit unfocused and also, we never really get the sense of why Olive is submitting herself to all that trouble. I did however find it mostly pleasant and although not consistently laugh out loud funny, it was thoroughly amusing. Agree with you on Tucci and Clarkson, they were the best thing in the movie aside from Stone’s performance.
The trailer looks pretty funny but this is dvd viewing stuff for me. I didn’t see Zombieland but my hubby did and he said she was impressed by Emma Stone. Is she the new Lindsay Lohan? Hopefully with a much brighter, and jail-free, career ahead of her
Ahaha yes! She does look like Lindsay Lohan but hopefully without the baggage and the diva attitude.
I liked it just a little more than you, but I mostly agree overall. Why she kept on giving into each step was highly questionable, but then again at points it felt like she was doing it just to mock popularity. I also thought the whole Lia Kudrow storyline was an absolute mess.
Tucci and Clarkson were spectacular. Brought a smile to my face everything they came on screen.
Oh, and it’s a shame that Bynes it’s retiring.
No she unretired one month after she “retired” ahah
Bynes’ “retirement” was more irritating than Phoenix’s.
I love the point you made about the double standard of girls and guys sleeping around I noticed that as well when I watched the movie. Despite this I think the movies pretty decent. I’ve never seen Election but you made me curious about it so ill check it out.
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