If you’ve seen the trailers over and over of the teenage girl singing, “I’ve gotta pocket. I’ve gotta pocket. I’ve gotta pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine” in the shower, as she shampoos her red hair into a mohawk then chances are you’ve seen the trailer of the same spunky girl talking to a snobby blonde Christian girl about Tom Cruise. And chances are, if you’ve seen either trailer you’ve been dying to see the movie. Well, you had every reason to because this month’s newly released movie, Easy A, was well worth your anticipation.
Easy A features the young but very sarcastic red-head, Olive (Emma Stone) as she learns how rumors spread much too quickly through her high school. She always lived under the radar until she lets her best friend, Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka), believe she had a one night stand with a college boy over the weekend. As Rhiannon is making up some over dramatic accusation about Olive’s weekend with her in the bathroom, their psycho Christian peer, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is eavesdropping on their story of Olive’s alleged weekend. Determined to “save” Olive and make her “see the light of God,” Marianne spreads the rumor of Olive’s notorious weekend to the entire school.
By the time Olive gets to her next class, her peers are already snickering and pointing at her behind her back. Being the confident, sarcastic character she is, Olive gets sentenced to detention after school for her inappropriate come back directed at one of Marianne’s followers when she calls Olive out in class as being, well, easy. She claims Olive resembled the adulterer from The Scarlett Letter they were studying in class, so she should embroider the “A” on her clothes as the adulterer was forced to in the novel.
When Olive reports to detention, she is reacquainted with her old friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), who has been struggling with his reputation of being gay. He confesses to Olive how he is repeatedly beat up by other guys and constantly ridiculed for his sexuality. She advises him to just pretend to be straight until they get out of high school. Taking her advise, Brandon shows up to Olive’s house a few short hours later to ask her out. She refuses since she knows the truth about his sexuality, but he asks her to fake hooking up at a huge party later that weekend. Guilty about the hardships Brandon faces, she agrees and they fake a fling in one of the most comical scenes of the film.
Shortly after, the rumors spread so Olive embraces it by buying new promiscuous clothes and embroidering it with a red “A” on her tops. Word quickly spreads as Olive earns herself a new reputation, but it quickly spirals out of control especially because of Marianne and her Christian group’s determination to have Olive expelled. Olive soon needs to decide between sacrificing her reputation for her friend and “clients” and losing her chance with the one guy she’s been crushing on for years, Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley, who is most commonly known as Dan from Gossip Girl) or coming clean and getting a shot at her own happiness.
The entire film was hilarious from the second the film started to the moment the end credits began. Since the trailers were so comical, I expected that those clips were the best of the movie, but I’m more than happy to admit that I was wrong. Every scene was filled with sarcastic line after sarcastic line that kept the audience laughing from start to finish. You’ll definitely leave the theater with a sore stomach from laughing so much that your abs hurt.
I think the producers did a spectacular job casting this movie. The lead role of Olive couldn’t have been casted any better. Stone performed flawlessly with her acting matching perfectly to the role. Bynes also proved herself in the role of the psychotic Christian leader. Her facial expressions made me laugh nearly every scene she was in. I’d have to admit that I was most surprised with Michalka’s acting though. She’s come a long way from being just another Disney star. Not only did she take on a completely new role of a swearing, promiscuously dressed teen obsessed with her bra size, but she conquered it. I found myself actually forgetting this was the same actress that performed in Cow Bells and sang duet songs with her younger sister just a few years ago.
The only problem I had with this movie is the scenes they tried portraying how fast the rumors about Olive spread. The camera panned and twisted so much and so quickly that I ended up dizzy. But then again, if that’s my biggest complaint then it truly must have been a great movie. Even my friend who was skeptical to see the movie turned to me as we were walking out and said, “That was like really good.”
I would strongly encourage anyone to see Easy A, especially anyone in high school. Although the movie makes fun of high school students at some times, it does so in a comical way that points out the flaws of high school students so even they’re laughing at themselves. Just remember, as Olive says, “A is for Awesome!”
Easy A is rated PG-13.
