Review: Easy A

Grade: A-

Olive was an extremely average high school student, unnoticed by most others at her high school in California. One day, she is sentenced to detention for verbally abusing a fellow student. In detention, she reconnects with an old friend, who happens to be gay. Later, he asks her to do him a favor, he is ridiculed constantly at school for being gay and he wants it to stop, his solution: He and Olive fake having sex at a big party so the rumor will spread that he is straight. Shortly after, the rumor spreads and she is painted as the school harlot. Instead of denying the claims, Olive decides to embrace the claims and help out some guys who wanted to gain a little popularity by letting them claim that they hooked up with her. All the while, in her English class they are reading The Scarlet Letter, so Olive decides to adorn her clothes with a red A as well, but then the everyone at the school starts treating her very differently and she wonders if she made the right choice.

Easy A is actually a lot of fun and a pretty decent movie. This movie is very funny and rather touching at times. It has many great lines and scenes that had me laughing and it’s all complimented by almost tragic scenes of Olive realizing what the rumor she helped start has done to her life. One of the more entertaining parts of the movie are the parallels that they make between Olive’s story at school and the Scarlet Letter. The story was actually pretty well written and very enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this movie. The only problem that I really had with Easy A was how so many of the characters at one point make it sound like the word twat is the worst word ever, much less a bad word at all.

Emma Stone (Superbad, Zombieland) plays the lead role of Olive. I have liked her performances in the past and she did a great job in this movie. Her portrayal of this type of character was spot on and did a great job with the more emotional stuff as well. Amanda Bynes (Hairspray, She’s the Man) plays Marianne, a super religious girl who starts a campaign against Olive. Bynes was very enjoyable in this movie playing a character people love to hate. Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia, The Terminal) plays Dill, Olive’s dad. Tucci was absolutely hilarious in this movie and some of the best lines came from him. Thomas Haden Church (Sideways, Spider-Man 3) plays Mr. Griffith, Olive’s English teacher. He did a great job with the small role that he had and was very enjoyable. The movie also features Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Alyson Michalka, Fred Armisen and more.

If you are looking for a funny, sweet and just plain fun movie, go see Easy A. It is a great movie for what it is and it has a lot of heart to it too. The ending is fantastic too.

Great quote: “I don’t understand your generation’s obsession with documenting every thought you ever have.”