The Ghost of John Hughes

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2010)

John Hughes may have passed away, but the torch has been passed to Will Gluck, who takes one of the first intelligent teen movie scripts that I've seen in more than a decade and knocks out a home run film with performances by a top-notch cast headed by Emma Stone, who finds new ground as a female lead, and great supporting performances by Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci Lisa Kudrow and the rest of the cast.
The title may make it seem like a sleazy Superbad for teen girls, but the film is a modern teen riff on The Scarlett Letter ("A") the Hawthorne novel about Hester Prynne, who is unfairly shunned by her community for a perceived tryst with a married man.
Stone's character,Olive, tells her best friend a small white lie, only to have it blossom into a rep about her being a slut that gets her attention that she's secretly craved from the rest of school, even if it is negative attention.
When the lie magnifies to epic and ridiculous proportions, the question that the film seeks to answer is how Olive can put that genie back into the bottle, and will she ever be the same? Bert V. Royal knocks out a script that is old-school witty and charming and intentionally dredges up homages to Hughes classics like "Sixteen Candles," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Say Anything" A totally enjoyable movie for teens and adults alike.