Customer Reviews

Easy A

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

It's easy to like a character, but it isn't often you come across one that you would want to actually be friends with, or maybe even wish you could be like. For me, such a character is Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), a high-school student from Ojai, California. True, she may only be a fictional character, but she's also the embodiment of personality - smart, witty, and affable, yet not so perfect or above it all that she fails to be human. Despite these magnetic qualities, she isn't noticed much by her peers, and she's all but upstaged by her best friend (Aly Michalka), who makes it a point to believe only what she wants to believe instead of actually listening to the truth. Things drastically change for Olive when she gains an infamous reputation as the school floozy, something she didn't start but certainly chose to perpetuate.

Her story is told in "Easy A," which is not only one of the funniest teen comedies of recent memory, but is also one of the most intelligent. Rather than go for obvious lowbrow sex and booze toilet humor, director Will Gluck and writer Bert V. Royal show the temerity to engage the audience with clever dialogue, strong characters, and a plot we can actually care about. It doesn't play down to the audience. If we laugh, it's not because of a vulgar throwaway gag but because of genuinely funny scenarios, many of which are relatable to varying degrees. Perhaps the film is founded on an extraordinary premise, but in my mind, it's a perfectly plausible premise, and the fact that the filmmakers could keep the story grounded while making it entertaining is quite an amazing achievement.

Olive's infamy begins when she lies about having lost her virginity over the weekend to a college student she made up. The lie is overheard by Marianne (Amanda Bynes), a judgmental and pious Little Miss Christian, who proceeds to tell everyone she knows about Olive's indiscretion. Rumors quickly spread. Other students begin to take notice of her, and although she never asked for her newfound reputation, she finds she's appreciating the attention. She's then approached by her gay friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), who's so tired of being harassed by homophobic bullies that he begs her to pretend to have sex with him. Knowing that no one would believe her if she simply told people about it, Olive drags Brandon to a classmate's party, where they lock themselves in a bedroom and make all the necessary noises. Everyone is fooled.

This includes Marianne and her circle of Christian friends, one of whom boldly suggests that Olive follow the lead of Hester Prynne in "The Scarlett Letter" and mark herself. Not content with doing things half-heartedly, Olive arrives at school the next day wearing a bustier with a red A affixed to the right breast. In due time, she's approached by other boys who want Olive to do for them what she did for Brandon; she agrees to help them all, although she's well aware that the situation is getting out of hand. It's bad enough that they're using her to inflate their egos. Why must they also compensate her with gift certificates and coupons to affordable stores like The Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond?

The ads have prepared us to view Olive as a cliché - a wisecracking teen who never shows her emotions and flaunts her superior intellect in the form of biting sarcasm and dry wit. But we end up seeing nothing of the sort. Olive is a young woman of considerable depth, jokey on the outside but within harboring needs, hopes, and deep insecurities. They emerge during scenes with the school mascot, Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley), the one guy who has known Olive most of her life and sees the person behind the reputation. Through him, she comes to believe that regaining her self-respect depends on tracking down each of the boys she helped and coercing them into telling the truth. This proves far more difficult than she expected. It's just as well; the root of "self-respect" is "self," which is to say no one other than her can turn the situation around.

Other characters, such as Olive's loveably liberal parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci) and her perpetually flustered school principal (Malcolm McDowell), add color to the story, even if they are a bit less three-dimensional and serve mostly as comedy relief. The English teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Hayden Church), is not only as witty and charming as Olive but is also remarkably perceptive; the same cannot be said about Mr. Griffith's estranged wife (Lisa Kudrow), which is ironic since she's the school's guidance counselor. I don't want to reveal too much about this couple. Let it suffice to say that Olive's actions have consequences that extend beyond the limits of the student body.

The film is told as a retrospective, Olive opening the film with a webcam confessional that continuously weaves in and out of the story proper. This is far from an original narrative technique, but Stone's performance and Royal's dialogue elevates it to new heights. Right at the start, we're drawn to this character, and we want to stay near her even after the story has come to an end. Not too many roles have this kind of power. Not too many teen comedies are this well written. "Easy A" is a sweet, sassy, ingenious little movie, one that I hope will not be forgotten ten years from now.

Easy A is the story of Olive, a nobody in high school whose life suddenly goes from silent to scandalous thanks to a cycle of rumours. As her reputation goes from non-existent to total trollop, Olive begins to dress the part, wearing sexy outfits with a crimson "A" embroidered on them (yes, this is Scarlet Letter-status, only without Demi Moore's fake British accent). As she lies to help boost other people's confidence, she starts to learn that just because you're well-known, doesn't mean people like you.
Overall, the story is light and quirky, with enough John Hughes references to satisfy even the biggest Brat Pack lovers. The jokes are fresh, and the cast is excellent, keeping this fairly well-paced film entertaining from start to finish. The cast has excellent chemistry, and the characters all seem to be believable. This is even a film you can watch more than once, and it still hold the same charm and humour.
If you're looking for a fun comedy full of great performances and an ever-so-slightly nostalgic feel, Easy A belongs on your DVD shelf.

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)

I usually see movies alone, but every once in a while we do the family-movie thing, which generally limits my choices. It usually takes forever to decide on something when we do this, but sometimes it all ends up working out well. This was one of those times. I had some ideas about Easy A going into it that were as wrong as could be; I saw the name (I'd never seen trailers for it) and assumed it was one of those "your classmate dies and everyone gets a good grade" kinds of things. No, and thank heaven for that. It is something much different, and a good deal better than any of those (with the arguable exception of The Curve).

Olive Penderghast (Zombieland's Emma Stone) is your typical invisible high schooler, noticed only by her best friend Rhiannon (Phil of the Future's Alyson Michalka). Things change when Olive, spinning a very tall tale for Rhiannon in the bathroom as an excuse to get out of a camping trip, is overheard by Marianne (Hairspray's Amanda Bynes), the head of the ultra-Christian contingent of the student body, who starts the rumor mill flying. Olive decides to adopt the "if you can't beat 'em" attitude and dressing the part (without ever actually doing anything actually, you know, salacious). All is well and good until she confesses the lie to Brandon (Cougar Town's Dan Byrd), the school's only gay teen, who hatches a plan; since Olive is not only straight, but now seen as a tramp, telling people he's been with her could give his image a makeover, too. She agrees to help, but the consequences are much father-reaching than she could ever have anticipated.

The synopsis doesn't get you anywhere close to the great cast this movie supports. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson play Olive's parents (Dill and Rosemary, no less), and are the best part about the movie every time they're on the screen. Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow play a husband-and-wife English teacher and guidance counselor at Olive's high school. Cam Gigandet takes a break from doing below-average horror flicks to take a turn as Marianne's boyfriend, a 22-year-old who's repeating senior year for the fourth time. This is good stuff indeed from a casting perspective, but how's the script? It's hard to believe this is Bert Royal's first feature; this is as sharp and as witty as the John Hughes movies Olive idolizes. (The Quizno's guy, and nice product placement there by the by, is as funny as the ball-waxer in Gutterballs, and that's saying something for a guy who has two lines; for the record it's Rawson Thurber, director of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.)

Sure, the movie has its problems. It's a teen comedy John Hughes-style, of course it has its problems. There are a number of times when the script could have gone in very interesting directions and instead chose to go the conventional route (especially where Marianne is concerned; she could have been an interesting character, but instead remains a one-dimensional object of audience ridicule), for example. And when did the clause in Patricia Clarkson's contract that required a nude scene in every movie run out? Someone's got to get that renewed. But for all that, it's smart, it's funny, and you should give it a look. *** ½

Easy A does in fact make it look easy. In the fifteen odd years since John Hughes was in his prime, there have been many attempts to recreate or extend on the zeitgeist of his movies. I have always considered it a lost art, a relic of the 80's...a flash in the pan of pop culture. Easy A gets very close to this mark while not being slavish and in the process adds a little something new to the mind share of the high school movie. That Easy A does this while also being incredibly aware of the comparison is even more amazing. John Hughes is even referenced by the movies protagonist Olive. She exclaims that her life will not turn out as such...that real life doesn't work that way, an ironic meta joke that sets the rest of the film's tone.

Easy A is a first person point of view narrative, retelling recent events. You learn later that this point of view is a live web cast. The events are set in a generic Southern California high school. Olive, our protagonist, has through her own good intentions, placed herself in a social pickle. Being high school the social issues revolve around sex and friendship.

The entire set up is that Olive pretends to have sex with a gay associate in order to ease his high school social pains. This little white lie sets of a chain of events that spirals out of control. Olive's reputation takes a plunge into the unknown depths of outcast which is widely divergent from her original status as "invisible". Framing this plunge into social wasteland is Olive's English teacher's lesson on the Scarlet Letter...hence the title. Needless to say, events work themselves out. Along the way, Olive's character experiences a crash course introspection.

The film itself is guided on the strength of a strong script with great dialogue. The script is chalk full pop culture references and perhaps more impressive a steady diet of literary references. The fact that the screenwriter Bert V. Royal makes Mark Twain relevant to modern high school life is a tremendous accomplishment. One that I enjoyed immensely.

More than that, Emma Stone gives a tremendous performance. Perhaps the only thing she does poorly is to be "invisible" as she purports during the opening sequence. She is entirely too attractive, lacking the girl next door quality of Molly Ringwald. Regardless, she gives a very nuanced performance; moving from vulnerable, to vixen to verbal assassin with ease.

Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci back up Emma's performance with equally vibrant vigor. The pair serve as Emma's parents and perhaps the only negative I can give is that Stanley Tucci almost overacts his role. But, you can tell that Stanley obviously enjoys his role; wallowing in the script with glee. Thomas Hayden Church gives a performance that exudes warmth in his limited screen time as Olive's high school English teacher.

The weakest part of the movie are the performances given by Emma's high school classmates. But, this does not detract from the movie as the class mates serve as little more than plot points. Their goal was to refocus Olive back into her introspection.

Overall, the movie is engaging. It is filled with an excellent cast that gives a better than expected performance. The script was a surprise. Laden with a copious amount of literary references and smart dialogue, not glib dialogue. Beyond that, this movie was Emma Stone's coming out party. She gives an impressive performance when she could have simply been content to occupy the screen and coast on her looks. Along the way the audience gets a feel good experience that captures a touch of the 80's and the best of modern film. To quote Ferris, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." You could miss this movie as well and that would be a shame.

I love love love Emma Stone so I had to see this. I thought she was great in "Superbad". Easy A jumped the shark because I never knew of a public high school that was so concerned about someone having sex. In high school, most people were having sex as far as I knew. It wouldnt be such a disgrace or big deal like it was in this movie. Also, my high school had no zealot Jesus freak lemmings either, sitting around singing hymns before homeroom. It was cute though- I liked the backround idea that she was helping out the downtrodden and unfortunate guys in her school from being "outted" as losers and all, but at times it was just unbelievable. I loved the end though with the guy she really liked. That was adorable.

I first heard about Easy A from Entertainment Weekly, which didn't give it that great of a grade. But when Saturday night rolled around and I didn't have anything to do, I thought why not spend a night at the movie theater. Easy A was the only thing at the theater that didn't involve talking owls, animated dogs, a murderer, or Betty White so it won by default. Yet after seeing it, I think this movie stands on its own and doesn't need to be someone's default.

The story follows a high school student named Olive who isn't the most popular girl in school but isn't really looking to be the talk of the school. When the weekend comes, her best friend invites her to go camping but Olive just wants to spend the weekend at home. Olive decides to lie to her friend and tells her that she has a date that weekend. At school on Monday, Olive's best friend pesters Olive about her imaginary date until Olive says that they had sex. Word gets around school and suddenly Olive is the talk of the high school. One of Olive's friends hears about the rumor which Olive confesses is not true. However, her friend does not care for he is being bullied about being gay and wants to prove to the school that he's not. So he and Olive attend a popular party where they secure and room and pretend to have sex so that entire party can hear. The next day at school the rumors about the boy's sexuality are cast aside while Olive becomes the main attraction. Olive continues to have fake sex with numerous boys in school so that it will help their reputation. Yet, the backlash causes Olive to become ostracized as she finds that though she believes she is helping these boys, she is not being true to herself.

First let me get out of the way my complaints with the film, which are few:
1. the plot is a bit contrived
2. the acting is not exceptional
3. the connection between the students reading The Scarlett Letter and Olive's being ostracized (to the point of wearing a scarlet A) is about a subtle as an anvil falling on one's head

But many tween movies are criticized for the same problems in script and acting, so I don't want to elaborate more on it here. Still, the good in this film completely outweighs the bad. These are a few of the things that I think separate this film from other asinine dopey chick flix:
1. this is NOT (thank god) a coming of age tale
2. there is little romance and some good comedy
3. it is not self righteous in its message

I think that the message of this film is very good and not something that you see everyday. Most teen films are about falling in love with the person you thought you hated (when does that ever really happen?) or being led astray by the glitter and false happiness of popularity. However, this movie is about how doing something that seems altruistic can actually come back to hurt you and others. It's about helping others while never losing your sense of self. And who doesn't like a couple chuckles while learning a solid life lesson? I certainly do!

I had been looking forward to watching this movie for awhile. I'm a huge fan of 80s movies and I liked that this movie had intentionally modeled itself after John Hughes' successful formula. If they did it right, there would be more movies like this in the future.

To put it simply, this movie was too unbelievable and clichéd to be enjoyable, even by John Hughes' standards. Beautiful girl who's supposed to be an outcast? Check (by the way, for an "ugly" invisible girl, she spends most of the movie successfully advertising for Victoria's Secret). Giant, rich high school where all the students look like they're in their twenties? Check. Christian fundamentalist stereotypes, just because? Check. Huge expensive pool party for high-schoolers? Check. Bland, perfect guy who gets the girl because the movie said so? Check. Nonstop overly-clever quips from precocious teenagers a la Juno? Check.

This annoyed me in the same way "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" did. The formula behind this movie was so blatant. If you're dying to mash up John Hughes and Diablo Cody and line your pocket with teenagers' allowances, can you be a TINY bit subtle about it? Maybe Penn Badgley really could be our generation's Ferris Beuler/Lloyd Dobbler, but making him stand outside a window with his iPod speakers blasting Peter Gabriel, just short of winking at the audience, is ridiculous. Yeah, we got it, even without the 80s movie montage.

Emma Stone did a great job at portraying a confused yet brilliant high school senior who didn't account for the severity of judgement in this day and age. I enjoyed the clever, amusing, and extremely witty dialogue and excellent twists. References to literature are abundant, and makes the movie that much funnier when you have read the book they are talking about. (Put down the bible once in a while and you may better understand the humor.)

On a different note, the funniest thing about the movie was actually some of the reviews I read afterwards. The reviews regarding the negative light this movie put on religion made me laugh harder than I have in a while. If you are religious, you probably won't like this movie because it does what religion can't afford; it portrays religion for what it is--judgmental and holier than thou mentality.

Anyway, I don't want to be preachy...great movie! Check it out.

Emma Stone rocks! There are not very many young actresses out there that have such a great style in comedy. Anybody who says that the acting is bad is stuck in the past. There are great teen movies from the 90's but come on its a new era people! Take a look around at the high schools around you! Yes those kids are the future!

This movie was both clever and amusing, while being surprisingly "clean" considering the subject matter. It was comfortable enough to watch with my teens, without getting that squirmy feeling that comes up when a movie has more swear-words or nudity than you'd want your kids to see you viewing. (Or for you to admit they watch, either.)