Released in Theaters: 9/17/2010
First Going the Distance, now Easy A, the second stand-out romantic comedy of the year. Easy A is a refreshing throwback to our favorite John Hughes’ 80’s films, without the really cheesy aspect. It’s smart and witty, with hilarious characters and a solid story. The movie centers on Olive, played by the talented Emma Stone, who is just a regular girl in high school. A girlfriend, Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka), invites her to spend the weekend with her extremely weird family. To avoid the unpleasant affair, Olive lies and says that she is meeting up with her brother’s college friend. In reality, Olive spends the weekend doing pretty much nothing, all the while listening to a ‘birthday card with sound’ that she has to keep opening to play over and over again. At first thinking it’s obnoxious, she soon can’t get enough of it: “I got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine, I got a love that I know that is all mine, oh. Oh woah oh.”
When Olive returns to school Monday, Rhiannon wants to hear all about the boy from the weekend. When she doesn’t have much to say, Rhiannon concludes that she lost her virginity, and eventually Olive admits that’s what she did. So ensues a rumor spreading as it always does – like a disease – and Olive is the school slut. Unexpectedly, she is approached by a gay high school boy who wants her to pretend to have sex with him so he can avoid being tormented by his peers. Feeling bad, she agrees.
Coincidentally, Olive’s history class is studying The Scarlet Letter. One really annoying church freak tells Olive that she should sport a Scarlet A just like the main character in the story, Hester Prynne. Not caring too much about what people think of her, Olive decides to wear her letter ‘A’ with pride, and continue her pretend sexapades with guys in exchange for…gift cards, mostly.
Penn Badgley plays the one cool kid in school. Not the cool, like, jock football player cool, but the cool, I don’t care what anyone thinks of me, cool. He’s the school mascot, for goodness sake. He also works in a restaurant and wears lobster hands when singing happy birthday to customers. And he’s totally sweet. And let’s face it, he’s adorable.
The two absolute coolest people are Olive’s parents, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Dill and Rosemary (how silly). Whenever they are on screen it’s hilarious. It’s nice, too, because stereotypically, parents in a high school movie are particularly lame. Not so in Easy A.
Overall, the movie is highly entertaining from start to finish with a good finish and a great cast. Best romantic comedy since She’s Out of my League – better!
MADE!!!!!
IMDB 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes 86%
Moviewiseguys 8/10
