Easy Girl

I think this is one of the best movies of the decade. Emma Stone is awesome and such a great actress. The story is impressive and super truthful to American's high school current reality. The Story: Olive Penderghast is a normal high school student just trying to "blend in the crowd". At some part, she says she lost her virginity to a boy in community college and everyone starts to call her a "dirty skank". Then, she starts dressing like one and pretending to have sex for money. This girl just wants to find true love but anybody would ask her out. The movie ends in a high note with a precious lesson: don't worry about what the others say about you. Just live your life. Such a great movie. I do really recommend it. :) :)

Just saw this with my daughter who is 13. She has just recently seen all the John Hughes 80's movies (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, etc.) and said it felt just like one of them. I couldn't agree more - great direction and just a hint of a wacky feel to it. Realistic, fun and interesting *normal* parents that don't take the world too seriously and want to be there for their kid.

The only parts that didn't hold up was a couple of logistical things (like a girl that good looking not having any guys following her around, and having a best friend who is such a ditz). All in all though the plot stuck together, was edgy in a few ways, and thoroughly entertaining. I'd put it on the shelf right next to the John Hughes films, and that is a distinguished place indeed.

What drew me to this film were the cast, on paper this was a great cast capable of great performances. And that's exactly the case watching Easy A. While there is nothing groundbreaking and while the cast drew me in initially the concept was a kind that was kind of interesting but could've gone either way.

That said, Easy A is lushly filmed with the cinematography and colour palette simply lovely. There is also a sparkling score, a good well-paced story, strong direction and a likable assortment of characters.

The two components of Easy A that really worked were the script and the cast. The script is not only fresh, but very funny too. In the cast also, I don't think there was a single cast member I didn't like, the first time in a film in a good while that's happened.

Emma Stone is truly charming and a breath of fresh air, while Amanda Byrnes with her witty humour is a hoot. Stanley Tucci gives one of his better performances in recent years and Patricia Clarkson is equally delightful. Thomas Haden Church is also hilarious, and it was really nice to see Malcolm McDowell again.

Overall, a funny and charming film and easy to like. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Lately the genre of teen comedies skew to the ribald and the are more sex romps than tell stories and introduce characters that you can not only root for but like. "Easy A" is a welcomed throwback to earlier teen comedies: risqué, but heartfelt.

In Emma Stone you have a Molly Ringwald for a new generation: relate-able, sexy, funny, sarcastic and lovely shines as Olive, a girl who leads her best friend (Aly Michalka) to believe she wasn't a virgin. The rumor spreads about her fabled loose ways and spurs different reactions from the school population: Brandon (Dan Byrd) wants to use it to his advantage, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) the school's self-appointed religious leader wants to shame Olive and Olive decides to run with it for her own gains.

There are many pluses with this film: A cast of young actors who are true actors who can convey the humor and uphold the tone of the film; a truly funny, vibrant script by Bert V. Royal in which not only the teens get to be smart and fully fleshed out characters but the adults (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Olive's wry and whimsical parents are a joy; and Thomas Haden Church whose character is a new spin on the "hip teacher".) as well.

With Stone as the lead and the only face in the promotional poster people may think this is a "chick flick" but this film is for anyone who just likes a good film.

Easy A stars Emma Stone as she takes on the role of a very different type of High School student who, despite the image she acquires throughout the movie, endures her tribulations with astounding indifference. If Emma Stones character wouldn't have carried with her that perpetual gleefulness, the movie might have just moved in a completely different direction. Though the movie was undeniably a comedy, I could not help but ponder over the dark undertones that loomed in the background of all the comedy.

Olive is an outsider, as we quickly pick up when she spends her weekend chanting ''A Pocket full of Sunshine'' alone in her room. For some, this may well be the most funny part of of the movie; for me, it was sort of depressing. To me, it emphasizes her lack of a social life, and it is how I felt when I first saw the part. I understand this is far from how most others perceive this part of the movie, but anyways...

Olive is also incredibly intelligent, and her snappy and witty retorts stay with her all throughout the movie. She leads a distanced life but appears to be a contended, courageous and confident girl with little social angst. Her relationship with her laid back parents (who were, by the way, one of the funniest proponents of the movie) is open and genuine. With a sudden lie to her best friend, Olive's life transforms from being an overlooked girl (which appears a little strange judging by her look, but im digressing...)into a whirlwind of exaggerated rumors,boosting her image into someone of a more than, to phrase it nicely, liberal sense of promiscuity.

The movie itself was great. Don't get me wrong, it did contain many funny moments and was distinctly comical. However, I myself saw potential in the movie to be meaningful, and for a movie to be meaningful, it requires realism. I hardly think the scenario presented in Easy A resembles real life. Characters were, at least mostly, very stereotypical and flat. OK, maybe not all of them. Anyways, I hope you get my point. As far as Olive goes, I had just one critique, which is once again digressing from the comedic theme of the movie. I couldn't quite grasp how lightly she took her mortifying daily life. (Potential Spoiler!) How did she just suddenly become a beauty goddess brushing off guys with a sort or royal indifference when it wasn't even clear if she had ever kissed a guy before. An innate confidence, maybe? Just a few things to consider from my point of view, none of which really interfered with the comedic scheme of the movie.

So, let's talk of the comedic value of the movie. Honestly, I didn't have awfully many ''laugh-out loud'' moments. Probably (and here we go again ) because of the dark undertones whose probability of being explored by the writers I failed to discard throughout the entire movie. I think that if I would re-watch the movie with a more comedy-oriented mindset it would indeed be funny, but its first impression on me was undeniably thought-provoking. Taking aside all of the stereotypical clichés, I really think this movie has something to say.

Feel free to disagree with me. Maybe I'll re-watch the movie and jump to a different conclusion.