Nathaniel Hawthorne's version was never like this.

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2011)

Easy A is directed by Will Gluck and written by Bert V. Royal. It stars Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow and Aly Michalka. Brad Segal scores the music and Michael Grady is the cinematographer.
In order to escape going on a hippie camping trip with her friend Rhiannon (Michalka) and her parents, Olive Pendergast (Stone) lies that she is going on a date with a guy. When pressed for details by the insistent Rhiannon the following Monday, Olive further fibs that she lost her virginity to said guy. This is overheard by leader of the God Squad, Marianne Bryant (Bynes), who promptly spreads the news like wild fire. When another pupil asks for her help to hide his homosexuality by saying they had sex together, Olive, her virginal stock already tarnished, agrees and sets in wheels the motion of a world of fake floozy and financial gain. But pitfalls are surely around the corner
OK, in essence it's just a comic spin on The Scarlet Letter, which Olive and classmates are studying in class, but following on from the great standards set by Clueless and Mean Girls, Easy A has enough vigour, vibrancy and savvy nous to make it one of the best teen comedies post the 1980's. True enough to say that some of the weighty angst themes such as promiscuity, peer pressure and peripheral love are glossed over in favour of lightweight comedy, not to mention the ballsy attack on religion, but still the social comment, all be it wryly, does exist. Besides, it's more fun this way, where the one line zingers and the whippy dialogue come thick and fast, courtesy of a fine script and a wonderful array of characters. Hell, Gluck and Royal even manage to, and get top results from, referencing and homaging those much loved John Hughes and Cameron Crowe movies that so many of us remember fondly. This is very much a successful whole.
The support characters are well rounded, especially the adults, where Church and Kudrow have a potent plot thread, and Tucci and Clarkson, as Olive's easy going parents, almost steal the movie from the teen actors. Seriously, those two might be the coolest parents, ever! But a film of this type could only engage and delight so many if its lead off character turns in a great one. In her first lead vehicle, Emma Stone is a revelation, further delivering on the promise shown in support slots in Superbad and Zombieland. With adroit comic timing and charm in abundance, Stone manages to blend streety cred with star wattage, making it a complete whole. Which when she is asked to be the epicentre for 98% of the lens time, is some going. Backing up Stone is Bynes who is memorable to say the least, whilst it would be wrong to not mention the fine comedy efforts of Badgley and Dan Byrd as potential love interest and gay friend respectively. The former gets the cool moment, the latter gets the laugh out loud fake sex moment.
The breeziness hides just how well acted and how well written it actually is, for it's one of the best of its type and one that just gets better on repeat viewings. 8.5/10