The idea of "being awesome" is the start of all problems...

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2010)

This is a story about the clicheic "I need to be awesome to be liked" dogma which has spread in almost any teenager since ever. Why we need that to be liked? Why we need to do outrageous or non-conventional things in order for the average Joe to like us? Is it a right thing or a bad thing? Well, I guess the answer for that is in anyone's personal beliefs and since we're not debaters here we're not gonna comment on the subject.
The movie dissects the issue pretty good by mixing up humor with personal situations and frustrations that mostly any teenager has at one point. There are exceptions but the rule is out-there. Olive (Emma Stone) is a virgin college teen which realizes that with one "little" lie she could change her college life. That "little" lie though covers a deep personal problem and she decides to go out on a rampage by pretending to having intimate relationships with mostly all guys that have personality-issues in her college. Along this journey of lies she gets both "praised" and "cursed". In time she finds herself in between admitting her true nature, her true character or cover all up and just let it go. It all gets a big mess-up when she finds out that being a "tramp" is not the solution to be liked. The story pretty much evolves around this subject and it's entertaining by not being that clicheic. It's a fresh movie but all-around it has it's lacks in storytelling and pacing because at one point it just loses it's charm.
Emma Stone was a very good choice for this movie. I'm usually not into her movies but she managed to bring life to her character and made it interesting. She also physically looks perfect for the role because it would have been such a bad/clicheic choice if they had chosen a hottie or some "Ugly Betty". I also enjoyed Stanley Tucci who portrays Olive's father. He may not appear more than 10 minutes together in the whole movie but I just like that guy as an actor. The one which I'm not happy to being cast is Thomas Haden Church because besides not being a fan of him, he was just bad in this.
Technically, the movie was edited pretty well, no random shots or random "intermissions" between the movie's chapters although there was no ingenuity. The music used is forgettable, nothing like in the case of 500 Days of Summer but it still manages to induce a "cool" college atmosphere. This is not a general college movie, it's really entertaining, covers a good amount of college-personal issues, and it's really good directed. I recommend this flick to anyone who's into these kind of movies and I guarantee they will have a great time.