Culch.ie

Easy A

Olive Prenderghast (Emma Stone) is your typical teenage girl. She feels passed over by guys and never was one of the popular kids. In fact, she is completely unseen by her high school peers until she tells a white lie about losing her virginity to a community college student. Next thing you know, Olive is faking having sex with a bullied gay student – to throw the bullies off the scent for a while. One thing leads to another and Olive ends up lying to help a lot of people’s reputations, but when everything is at stake, who is going to tell the truth for her?

Easy A is one of the funniest, silliest and damn smart comedies of the year. Unlike other offerings we have had – which shall remain nameless – Easy A is unselfconscious and genuinely funny. Emma Stone is fantastic as Olive, and if you can get past the idea that she is overlooked by boys (I mean, really?), it is easy to understand why she does what she does. Emma Stone has cropped up all over the place in recent years, her most stand out performance – until Easy A – was last year’s Zombieland. Stone is going to be huge, especially now that she has been cast in the Spiderman reboot.

It would be easy for Olive to alienate the audience, rather than draw them in. She is clever and funny and really doesn’t buy into the whole high school hierarchy that much. Good job she is also sweet and funny, as well as aware of her insecurities, or Olive would be a character that we would love to hate, instead of simply loving. Stone’s comedic timing and facial expressions are great, as is her interaction with her supporting cast, especially her adorable parents – played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson – her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and nemesis Marianne (Amanda Bynes).

The script of Easy A is fantastic. It is more Mean Girls than Juno in language, and follows similar lines – albeit with slightly less teen bitchiness. The film takes it’s title and some of its premise from The Scarlet Letter, which Olive is studying. When she sees similarities between her situation and Hester Prynne she decides to go with it and sews a large letter ‘A’ into her clothes and wears it proudly. When asked why she is doing it Olive smirks and says, “Oh, ‘A’ is for awesome”. As well as this, Will Gluck’s direction is easy and fluid, and allows the actors to enjoy the great roles that they have been given.

Happily, Amanda Bynes has retracted her statement that she has retired from acting, because she is wonderful as Olive’s foil Marianne. While she is cast roles that all feel similar to each other, she does them well and her performance in Easy A compliments Emma Stone, and her comedic timing just gets better and better.

Easy A could easily fall into the category of annoying teen angst movie, but with Emma Stone carrying the show, a wonderful supporting cast and great direction, Easy A deserves a place alongside the great movies of it’s style, including Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You. It was about time we had another good high school comedy – after all, it’s a six years since Mean Girls.

Overall, Easy A is a well written, well-directed comedy. Although the supporting cast are lovely, this really is Emma Stone’s show and she carries it with grace, charm and ease. Easy A mixes the heart of John Hughes with the wit of Diablo Cody (thankfully without the Juno-esque vernacular) and brings us a smarter than average teen comedy that we all can relate to in some way.