Emma Stone gets an A in her first lead role

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2011)

¨The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated.¨ I wasn't surprised as to how much I actually enjoyed this teen comedy because I had seen Emma Stone's work in the past. She was only a supporting character in Zombieland and Superbad, but she was great in both those films and her career looked promising. Easy A is her first lead role and she proved she can carry a film all on her own. Emma Stone has the right look for a movie star and at the same time has a natural wit that very few young actresses have. Her performance reminded me a little of Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls (I just hope her career doesn't follow a similar fate). Stone is a much better actress and seems a lot smarter as well, but let's not forget that Lohan also started off with a promising career. Easy A is directed by Will Gluck, who actually had only directed one other relatively unknown movie before this (Fired Up). The screenplay was also written by another unknown writer in the film industry: Bert V. Royal (who had worked for TV in the Dave Chappell Show). I really enjoyed the script however, and felt it was written by someone with the comedic genius as Tina Fey for example. Easy A had everything good going for it: Emma Stone and a really funny and smart script. That's all you need for a comedy to work these days. Will Gluck pulled it off and delivered one of the best comedies of 2010 (even though there weren't very many good comedies this year).
Olive (Emma Stone) narrates via a video blog how she told her best friend a little white lie about losing her virginity, and how that small lie spread thanks to the High School rumors. The story is told by her and we see what she is saying through flashbacks. It all began when Olive told her best friend, Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) that she had a date with a college guy so she had an excuse not to go camping with her strange family. After not doing anything all weekend, Olive meets Rhiannon back at school and she asks how the date went. Rhi suspects that Olive had sex with this mysterious guy and insists so much that Olive simply lies so she won't bother her anymore. Marianne (Amanda Bynes), the religious freak in school, hears the conversation in the bathroom and begins spreading the rumor. All of a sudden Olive begins to be noticed by everyone at school and she kind of likes being the center of attention. That same day Olive is sent to detention and spends the afternoon with Brandon (Dan Byrd) who's also been detained. Brandon is constantly bullied on by his classmates due to the fact that he's gay. When Brandon learns from Olive that the rumor is a lie he comes up with the idea to lie about having sex with her in order for the students at school to stop believing he's gay. All of a sudden Olive's reputation as a skank begins to grow and she ends up finding herself lying about having relations with several of the students in order to help them out. Olive finds a parallel between herself and the character from The Scarlett Letter (Hester Prynne), the book they are studying in school with professor Griffith (Thomas Haden Church). Everyone seems to judge Olive based on the rumors, except Todd (Penn Badgley), the guy who she's always had a crush for.
Emma Stone proved she can have a lead role in Hollywood and does it well, but she also had a great cast to back her up. Stanley Tucci played her father and he's always funny in every scene he's in. He's just such a great actor that always makes any movie so much funnier when he's on screen. Patricia Clarkson is also hilarious in her role as Olive's mother. These are two of the most unconventional parents I've seen in a movie this year. They were great on screen together. Amanda Bynes was also good in her role as a religious freak who was constantly judging Olive. Thomas Haden Church is always funny in every movie that he appears in so Emma Stone had a great cast to work along with. She also counted with a great script (I loved the narration about the 80's movies and how she wished her life would be directed by John Hughes). The video blog journal also added to the comedy as we got to hear Olive's witty side notes about what was going on. I really didn't care too much for Cam Gigandet and Lisa Kudrow's characters. Their performances were off par with the rest of the cast. Neither of them get much screen time so they don't affect the movie at all. Easy A is easily one of the best comedies of the year. I really enjoyed it and thought Emma Stone was great in it along with the rest of the supporting cast. I wish they made more comedies like this one.
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