2010Director: Will Gluck
Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes and Penn Badgley
Plot: A clean-cut high school student relies on the school's rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.
Emma Stone has been of interest since her first big break as Jonah Hill's witty love interest in Superbad. Her second big movie was Zombieland, and everything that wasn't Jesse Eisenberg in that movie was pretty good in comparison, so we'll let that one slide. Since funny beautiful young actresses seem few and far between I was excited to see that she got a big starring role in the high school comedy Easy A. Emma plays Olive Pendergast, an excessively witty teenager who lies to a friend and says she's lost her virginity. This news travels fast and Olive is the new slut at her high school. Pretty basic fare thus far, so before I continue I'd like to make a small diatribe concerning the writing for this movie. What is this weird Diablo Cody idea that all high schoolers are extremely witty and mature for their age, cracking dry sarcastic comedienne worthy remarks at every single possible opportunity? I don't get it and it fucking annoys me, because high schoolers can be genuinely funny, but its not because they sound like some fantasy person with a scriptwriter in leiu of their brain's speech center. Superbad was the perfect example, people were shocked at the language, but that profanity laden juvenile banter was so much more authentic and watchable to me than that bullshit that spewed out of Juno's mouth every five seconds. Easy A came close to really bothering me in this department, but luckily Emma Stone is genuinely funny and her character is at times very sophmoric, so she was a touch more relatable. There was a similar, too-funny vibe going on with Olive's oh-so-quirky family that at times worked and at times made me want to barf. This was once again probably saved by good acting, this time on the part of Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci.
Ok, so back to the story. After everyone thinks Olive is a slut, a gay friend asks if she'll pretend to have sex with him to get bullies off his back. She does, and things quickly get out of hand as it dawns on the male population that if a girl will say she's had sex with you, or not deny it when you say it, then you can have the reputation of a stud with none of the work or know-how. This is apparently something men want in spades, and Olive is inundated with fake suitors. What does she get in return? Gift cards to Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Home Depot. This was shameless advertising that occurred many times without me even realizing it until I just wrote the whole list down, but still pretty funny. It seemed like something high school boys might realistically offer up for the price of a girl's reputation. I particularly liked Emma Stone's indignation when one guy attempts to give her a 20% off coupon for Bath and Body Works for her services. Damn there was another product endorsement! Then things get complicated when Olive discovers that being called the school slut really isn't that fun, particularly when you think a guy might like you when really he just thinks you sleep with people for Home Depot gift cards. The movie then quickly resolves itself in a not too interesting or entertaining matter.
The whole thing really seemed like some popular teen novel or better yet, graphic novel, turned slightly-better-than-mediocre movie, but my researching only turns up that this movie was based on The Scarlett Letter, something that is bashed over our heads many times in the movie. We get it, it is sassy that she willingly brandishes an "A" on her clothing. And I was willing to play along, but the fact that all of Olive's problems are resolved once the guy of her dream asks her out was a dumbed-down solution for a movie pretending to be a little bit smarter.
