Easy A (Will Gluck) 2010

Olive (Emma Stone) is an unpopular high school student until she tells a lie that leads to a rumor she lost her virginity. Olive likes the attention she gets and decides to keep the ruse going. Other students approach Olive and ask if she will give them imaginary flings in order for them to shed some of their loser status. The school soon after brands her a whore and Olive adopts a scarlet A to match The Scarlet Letter they are reading in English.

You will hear this worn out phrase a lot but it fits. This movie owes a lot to John Hughes movies. Not only does it share many themes of a John Hughes flick, it makes many references and jokes about them. This is a high school fantasy with Emma Stone playing more the female equivalent of Ferris Bueller. Olive is an intelligent girl who is not at a loss for a smart ass quip. I do appreciate the fact though her dialog doesn’t get too smart for its own good (like Diablo Cody’s script for Juno).

There are things people can nitpick about this movie. You do have adults playing teen roles, you have the beautiful Emma Stone playing an unknown book worm, and you have peculiar plot elements like people giving way too much of a crap over someone losing their virginity. Seriously, you have people branding her a whore for losing her virginity when I would argue in today’s high school it is more a question of who ISN’T getting some kind of action. And this isn’t some kind of small town in the middle of Bible country this is California. However, like I said this is fantasy complete with singing numbers (Ferris Bueller) and the cliched nerdy girl transformation into beautiful girl.

This movie is very funny. In addition to the many references, the dialog is funny and witty. Much of the praise can go to Emma Stone who carries most of the movie. She plays well with the cast and has good banter to what could have been a stale teen sex comedy. Much of the rest of the cast also has funny supporting roles from Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, and Amada Bynes. The only weak spot would probably be Lisa Kudrow who probably doesn’t know how lucky she was she had Friends in her career.

I don’t get into many comedies but I enjoyed this one. This will be a movie I will get when it comes out on DVD. This isn’t a classic, but it had me laughing consistently throughout. The trailers may not have been that good, but I give this a recommendation.