Easy A (2010)

Every so often there’s a film that looks very silly and completely braindead and I want to see it more than anything. This was one of them.

Easy A is vaguely based on The Scarlet Letter, and follows Olive (Emma Stone), a perfect student, who, through telling one lie, tarnishes her entire reputation. Could that sentence have any more commas in it? Anyway. After the initial kickstart of her new “superslut” title, a gay friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks if she would pretend to have sex with him so that the bullying he has to suffer through daily would stop. After much coercion Olive agrees. Seeing Brandon’s success, the entire bullied and downtrodden population begins to ask Olive for help, and against her better judgement she agrees to help them too. Cue much angst and a moral of the story.

Now, for those who haven’t seen this movie, this will look like the typical teenage rom com flick out to get ticket sales with a hot lead actress and sex as the main theme. True, that’s exactly what it is, but what it also is, is pure quality. This film was heralded in reviews as “the next 10 Things I Hate About You” (for those who don’t know, it is considered that ever since Clueless in 1995, there has been only one good teen film every 5 years, these include 10 Things I Hate About You and Mean Girls… Easy A was prophesied as the next big thing) and believe me, it doesn’t disappoint.

The first and probably most important thing that makes this movie so incredible is its dialogue. The dialogue is to die for, and if a dialogue-whore like me pretty much clung to every word then mere mortals will enjoy it thoroughly. But all flourishes and glitter aside, the movie is very clever. If you grew up in the 2000s (can’t really say 00s here can I?) a lot – if not all – of the references will make sense to you, but they’re not obscure enough to confuse the older generations. Olive is an incredibly lovable character not because she’s the lead and she has to be, but because she’s genuine. She’s sarcastic and silly and friendly and genuinely a nice person, which, really, is what screws her over in the end. I don’t know about you guys, but I can relate to her.

The acting is also top notch for the genre it’s made itself popular in. I’m not exactly one to talk about “being mature”, believe me, but I find some teen comedies very hard to watch not only for their general silliness and toilet humor (of which this film has none unless you consider a very entertaining conversation held in a bathroom as toilet humor. Aaah see what I did there?) but also for the very bad acting. In a genre like “teen romance” it’s difficult to act a lot of things without making them look like remakes of Days of Our Lives. Easy A has its silly moments, it has stupid references and its share of over-the-top acting (though in Easy A’s case, the over-the-top character is meant as a satire, not to be taken seriously) but it’s entertaining, not mind-numbingly stupid.

Another thing that has to be mentioned that, for me, makes this film stand out, is how Olive grows as a character, and how she suffers for her choices. It’s realistic and painful, and you really, truly feel sorry for her when the shit hits the fan a few hundred times over. She’s a well-rounded character that just happened to fall into a bad situation that started with good intentions.

Finally, the supporting cast, as it were, isn’t a brainless swarm of shadow-characters there simply to fill space, they have good dialogue (especially her family), certain influences on Olive and tend to stay in your mind for more than just appearing in that scene half naked saying something ditsy (which, in actual fact, never happens in this move).

So, after 650-odd words of pure and utter crap up there, I would like to take a moment to give this movie an 8/10. It is funny, it is clever, it is entertaining and you don’t feel your brain cells slowly migrate out your ear when you watch it. I recommend it to everyone and anyone. Yes, guys too. Some of my closest friends find this movie very amusing and I trust their judgement. So believe me, tis worth the watch.

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