One of the movies we could not wait for the Autumn season to bring us this year was Easy A. After seeing the trailer and ‘that clip with the greeting card’ we were pretty much counting down the days on our calendar until we got to witness it in it’s full glory. Thankfully, our patience was greatly rewarded with a top notch teen comedy that does not fail to deliver.
Easy A tells the story of Olive (played by the magnificent Emma Stone) who is a virgin in high school that nobody really pays attention to. However, after she is overheard telling her best friend about some fabricated sexcapades in the school bathroom by the school’s head Cristian, she becomes the number one topic of conversation. She does nothing to stop the rumor mill and ends up becoming a modern day Hester Prynne á la The Scarlet Letter complete with a stitched ‘A’ on her clothing. Then, her friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) convinces her to help him quash the rumors that he’s gay and rid him of his homophobe bullies using the old ‘unnecessarily loud pretend sex at a raging party’ plan. This adds fuel to the slutty fire and to say things go a bit crazy is an understatement! Hilarity ensues as Olive tries to deal with being the biggest celeb on campus, while still trying to juggle school and all the things that come with being a teenager.
Major props are due here to Emma Stone for graduating from a slew of supporting roles in the likes of Zombieland, Superbad and The House Bunny to a fully fledged star in Easy A. She holds her own in a role that many would not take for fear of having to risk their flawless demeanor for comedy’s expense. Emma Stone does not have that problem. She brings her sarcastic wit to the role that we only saw hints of in Zombieland and the @rcade LOVES it. She has also got a mature air about her that appeals to an older generation of women, who once knew or indeed once were an Olive. Her relationship with her parents who are played by the awesome tag team of Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island) and Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones, Lucky Number Slevin) is one any teen would love to have! They provide some great one liners that the @rcade has been quoting all week. (Spell it with your peas!)
The other supporting actors in Easy A deserve a huge honorable mention. We are so very thankful that Amanda Bynes (Hairspray, She’s The Man) came out of her ridiculously early ‘retirement’ to star as the self righteous preacher’s daughter, Marianne. Thomas Hayden Church (Sideways, Spiderman 3) is pretty amusing as Olive’s laid back teacher Mr. Griffith. One flaw we did find was that the story with Lisa Kudrow (Friends) as his wife and Olive’s guidance councillor Mrs. Griffith felt like it wasn’t really developed enough. Given more screen time, we might have been more interested in the character of Mrs Griffith and their relationship in general. Another character we thought deserved more screen time was Woodchuck Todd, played by the delectable Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl). He’s supposed to be Olive’s main love-interest but we only really see him at the start of the movie and at the end (which is so not cool!).
Another thing we really enjoyed about Easy A was the way screenwriter Bert V Royal pays homage to some of our favourite John Hughes movies. Having grown up watching everything from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to Breakfast Club and Weird Science it filled us with a great deal of nostalgia and a sense of hope for this new generation of writers. (Not bad for his first major script, huh?) It will also please the more nerdy @rcaders among us to see another movie successfully use a classic novel as a backbone. The Scarlet Letter does for Easy A what The Taming of the Shrew did for 10 Things I Hate About You and we loved it!
It’s been a long time coming, but after years of searching, the @rcade may have finally found a movie that deserves a place in our hearts that was once reserved for Clueless and Mean Girls. We might even be so bold as to claim it defines this generation simply due to the comments it makes on the use of technology in this day and age. It’s just one of those movies that despite a few flaws, you can’t help but come away from with a smile on your face. And for that, Easy A is sooo FETCH!
Easy A opens in cinemas nationwide Friday 22nd October! Be sure to check it out!
And for your enjoyment…
