Easy A (www.the-usher.com)

"The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated."

Never noticed at High School, Olive (Stone) tells a little white lie her best friend Rhiannon (Michalka) that she lost her virginity at a college party over her birthday weekend. The fact that she had spent full weekend at home did not sound so great but she thought a small lie would not hurt. Little did she know that it would set in motion a series of other lies and stories that would see her become the most well known girl in school but for all the wrong reasons.

When it comes to teen movies Hollywood has been trying to recreate the golden age of the 1980s but can ‘Easy A’ achieve that goal?

In the 1980s one man changed the teen movie forever and he was writer/director John Hughes. With hits like ‘Sixteen Candles’, ‘The Breakfast Club’, ‘Pretty in Pink’, ‘Weird Science’, ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ and ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, John Hughes spoke to a generation of average kids who grew up in the suburbs but still had their own problems and dramas to overcome at High School. When John Hughes decided to move away from the teen audience for adult and kids projects, a huge void was left and many a filmmaker and studio have tried to fill that huge whole. Hits like ‘American Pie’ in the 90s and ‘Superbad’ in 00s have tried to draw in that average, suburban teenage market again with some success but they relied more on the gross out comedic approach than comedy mixed with real life dramatic issues that affect this audience. With ‘Easy A’ this has all changed.

Channeling the imagination and creativity of the late, great John Hughes, director Will Gluck and writer Bert V. Royal have created a teen movie for the 10s generation and one that will appeal to anyone who was a teenager in the 1980s. Leaving the gross out plot device that has plagued teen comedies for over a decade for storytelling which mixes humour, emotion and drama, ‘Easy A’ is a teen flick that is expertly written and brought to the silver screen with care, attention and a great deal of gusto.

Takings the basic premise from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter’, ‘Easy A’ is the story of a girl called Olive who tells a little white lie to her best friend to make her seem a little cooler than she is. That lie was she has lost her virginity while on a made up weekend away with an imaginary boyfriend and as soon as she says it she has the feeling it will come back to bite her but she never expected what happened next. With the rumour quickly spreading like wildfire through her High School, she is approached by her friend Brandon, whose life is been made a living hell due to rumours of him been gay. He asks Olive is pretend to have sex him so the bullies will leave him alone until high school is over but when she reluctantly agrees everything explodes and Olive starts on a spiral of lies that could ruin her reputation forever. Mixing humour with the peer pressures of suburban teenage life, ‘Easy A’ has a lot to say to its audience but tells it extremely well.

The teen movies of the 80s made superstars of actors like Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and Matthew Broderick, with the young stars of the time been known as the ‘Brat Pack’. There has been a time where young actors could command the box office as they could then but a new modern wave of young actors are emerging and leading the female pack is Emma Stone. The star of ‘Superbad’ and ‘Zombieland’ is the new ‘Molly Ringwald’ for the 10s and as Olive she gets the chance to show why. Narrating the film, as Ferris Bueller did but this time to a webcam, Stone’s Olive is a suburban every girl who just wants to be notices but she discovers that lying is never the answer. Singer turned actress Amanda Bynes has fun as the overly religious Marianne who instantly labels Olive for her devilish ways. ‘Gossip Girl’ actor Penn Badgley continues to impress as Woodchuck Todd and ‘Bandslam’ actress Alyson Michalka is an up and coming actress to watch as Olive’s friend Rhiannon.

A teen movie would be nothing without the adult characters for the up and coming stars to play against and ‘Easy A’ as a great ensemble. Anyone would love to have Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as their parents, as Dill and Rosemary are the most understanding and cool parents you will ever meet. Thomas Haden Church is an extremely cool teacher, Liza Kudrow plays against type as a bitch of a guidance councilor and you can’t get much better than Malcolm McDowell as the Principal of the high school.

‘Easy A’ is a gem of a teen movie and a rare example of the genre that parents who grown up in the 80s heyday of the ‘Brat Pack’ can now watch with their own teenage kids. With a great cast and a story that mixes comedy and drama extremely successfully, ‘Easy A’ could well become a classic of the genre.

DVD Bonus Material

Commentary with Director Will Gluck and Emma Stone
Gag Reel
Emma Stone’s Audition Footage

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2010