Easy A

Easy A was released in 2010, and follows the story of Olive (Emma Stone), a perfectly ordinary student who gets good grades and is pretty much invisible. However, a lie to her best friend Rhiannan (Alyson Michalka) about sleeping with a college student, soon gives her a reputation around the school; and she attracts the attention of Christian extremist Marianne (Amanda Bynes). The situation is worsened when Olive agrees to pretend that she has slept with her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) in order to stop him being bullied; an act that soon leads to numerous socially-awkward guys asking her to let them say she slept with them.

It's certainly an interesting and new premise for a film. Bert V. Royal's script has some laughs, and is genuinely interesting in dealing with the idea that guys as well as girls feel socially-insecure during their teenage years. It also brings to life quite wonderfully the 'rumour mill', where things spread very quickly, thanks to mobile phones, Facebook and just gossipy people. The film also uses a 'vlogging' format, to introduce the different 'parts' of the story, which was quite an interesting an idea.

The best thing about the film was probably the performances. Emma Stone is very relatable and as 'normal' as an attractive Hollywood actress can be, and she brings wonderful humour to the central role. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are wonderful as her parents, and Dan Byrd is very good in a role that could be the stereotypical 'gay best friend' role. I think I was most suprised by Lisa Kudrow as Mrs Griffiths, the guidance counselor, who totally shook off the 'Phoebe' tag. Although to me, the performance of the movie was Amanda Bynes as the Christian Bible-basher Marianne, who probably got all of the best lines.

It is not quite the 'next Mean Girls' as it was dubbed; but it was pretty funny and made for a nice fluffy film that ended happily and was a nice way to spend an afternoon. Plus, it has references to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain (who is invovled in one of the best gags), which is wonderful for Literature geeks :)