“Easy A” (opening September 17 throughout San Diego) is directed by Will Gluck and serves up a romantic comedy about the struggles of fitting-in in the savage world of high school.
The plot begins with the protagonist, Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), forced to tell a white lie about losing her virginity. Soon this harmless little lie becomes an rumor that advertises Olive as the new school slut. With her new found popularity and reputation she decides to help her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) fool everyone into thinking he’s a heterosexual stud by making the biggest fake sex scene anyone could ever make in a bedroom. Later when the geeks, nerds, Jesus freaks, and other high school outcasts find out about what really happened in that bedroom, they ask for Olive’s help to get them some popularity too. Soon Olive’s business of soliciting fake sex for money, coupons, and gift cards blows out of proportion, and she finds herself alone and engulfed in the hostile territory of enemies. Now she must find a way to make everyone see the obvious truth and clear up her reputation.
Just having graduated from high school, I can relate to this film. I used to hang around many different groups of people during high school and although my school was no longer majority white as Olive's school seems to be, I do think "Easy A" did a good job at expressing the behavior of teens these days. It's almost spot on: the kids you label as sluts, geeks, weirdos, creepers, etc. are most of the time not really what you think they are or label them as being.
I also liked how when Emma had her personality makeover, everyone was talking about her but at the same time not much dialogue was being used because teens these days tend to send everything through text messages, Facebook, or MySpace. This is how things spiral out of control and the film does a great job at capturing that. With all the high tech devices we have these days like webcams, the Internet, cell phones, and HD cameras, kids spread rumors at high schools like herpes spreads in truck stop bathrooms. And the more you try to tell people the truth the guiltier you look.
“Easy A” does an excellent job at portraying how the victims of rumors in today’s generation might feel. Using modern technology trends to illustrate the evil rumor mongering of young folks and the speed at which it can travel these days, this movie is viral. It grabs your attention almost immediately. Not to mention the cast is amazing. Ever since her feature film debut in “Superbad” and her work in “Zombieland,” Emma Stone has grown to be excellent actress. The one thing i truly loved about this film is how Olive kept saying she wanted her life to be like a movie and i honestly believe that is every teenager's dream.
One other character I want to mention. Apart from all the weirdos, creeps and Jesus freaks, there's always that one kid everyone knows and loves, and everyone knows that kid is going to be a somebody. In this movie, that somebody was Woodchuck Todd, the all around good guy you really don't notice till the end.
“Easy A” (rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material) is a fantastic movie for all teens and adults to watch. And for all those guys out there who freaked out when I said “romantic” comedy, don’t worry. It’s not “The Notebook” romantic. It’s romantic enough to keep the teen girls watching, but funny enough to keep us teen guys interested. Maybe this review will start a viral Internet rumor about Emma Stone being great in “Easy A.” Only in this case the rumor would be true.
--Jesus Gomez just graduated from Mount Miguel High School and is interested in pursuing a career as a writer or film critic.
