Ed's Review Dot Com

Screen Gems, Olive Bridge Entertainment

Emma Stone, Alyson Michalka, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell

Easy A is a clever little teenage angst movie based around Nathaniel Hawthorns “The Scarlet Letter”. Olive (Emma Stone) is a chaste teen-age girl who feels invisible. No one in school notices her. She has a gay friend who is very in the closet to avoid all the trouble it will cause for him if anyone finds out. Olive remembers something that happened years ago with a boy who was to be her “first kiss”. They didn’t want to really kiss, but they both didn’t want the shame of not doing it, so they made a deal to not do it and tell everyone they did.

Meanwhile, after hearing this story, her gay friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd) begs her to be his “pretend” girlfriend. Olive is reading the book “The Scarlet Letter” in class, and hatches a plan to go to a party as Brandon’s girlfriend, go to a bedroom and have “pretend” sex so that everyone will hear for sure and the rumor will go around that Brandon is straight and Olive is a tramp. This plan works better than she expects and following the line of “There is no such thing as bad publicity” Olive is suddenly the talk of the school. Unfortunately Brandon can’t help blabbing to his friend, and before you know it a whole line of losers is waiting to pay Olive to have “pretend” sex with them to upgrade their image. So Olive is the slut of the school and is still pure and chaste. There are a slew of smaller parts with great actors in this film too. Stanley Tucci is Olive’s Dad and Patricia Clarkson is her mom. Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow play married teachers with lots of issues. Malcolm McDowell is hysterical as the principal, and Fred Armison puts in an appearance as a pastor. Amanda Bynes is here as the church girl who runs the school “abstinance club” and of course has lots of issue with Olive the tramp.

This is a lot funnier than I expected, and it was a really very decent movie. It wasn’t a huge hit, which kind of surprises me, as it was very clever. Sometimes good films get lost at the box office by being up against other big films at the time which may have happened to this film. At any rate, it’s a very nice rental and an enjoyable film. The development of the story was fun, and not so predictable. There were a couple surprises. Having the small parts played by recognizable actors also made it a lot of fun. This was the kind of film that is a surprise as you come into it not expecting much. It was light and easy and was fun to watch.

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