The smartest high school teen comedy I've ever seen.

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2020)

There's a rare comedy zone that exists above pratfalls & cheap gags, above situational laughs, somewhere near satire but not quite that obvious. It's a peculiar zone, sort of like the classic "Edward Scissorhands" where the filmmakers are clearly showing you an exaggerated reality, but not so exaggerated that you lose touch with its relevance. And through this wacky prism we see our own lives with a hilarious spin if the actors can pull off the right deadpan delivery. Very few movies hit this zone, movies like "Catch-22" (1970), "Dr Strangelove" (1964), "Joe Vs. the Volcano" (1990) or "Punch Drunk Love" (2002). And here, I'm happy to announce in the most unlikely genre (high school teen comedy) we have a great addition to the list: "Easy A".
If I lost you with my opening paragraph don't worry, all I'm saying is that this movie is really funny. Emma Stone plays "Olive Pendergast", a 17-year old girl at a California high school who, after years of being a faceless nobody, suddenly gets thrust into the spotlight when strange rumors of her sexual promiscuity spread like wildfire. The "Easy A" in the title is a reference to the parallel story of "The Scarlet Letter", the 1850 novel about a woman accused of adultery and forced to wear a demeaning "A" for her sins. But here we see a cool, modern take on the situation with Olive proudly and spitefully wearing her penance in front of the entire school of her accusers.
And that's what makes this such a fun & hilarious flick. It's that, the whole time, Olive is almost like the puppetmaster and controller of the crazy events that happen as things quickly escalate. Emma Stone is perfect for the role with her sarcastic wit and deadpan apathy even though her life is rapidly going into the trash can. Thus the chain of events becomes like what I described in the opening paragraph: an exaggerated reality delivered with deadpan precision. If you've ever seen a Bill Murray flick ("Groundhog Day"), that's how Emma's character comes across.
Throw into the mix some really witty zingers, some hilariously bizarre characters and a healthy buffet of references to classic 80s teen comedies (movie buffs, you can make a game of trying to catch them all), and you've got a great experience. The whole presentation is like a 80s John Hughes film on steroids. John Hughes would populate his high schools with instantly recognizable archetypes (the jock, the nerd, etc), and here we have the same approach but way off the deep end. Instead of being antagonized by the jocks, Emma's character must match wits with the Jesus freaks who sit around with a guitar singing bad religious diddies (another parallel with the antagonists in "The Scarlet Letter").
From beginning to end, "Easy A" is very well written, clever, poignant and just plain hilarious. And on top of it all, it delivers a powerful message that every teen, as well as most adults, should remember regarding how to navigate this crazy judgmental society we live in. As you're watching this, you realize that the microcosm of high school applies to our entire civilization. Whatever age you are, definitely give this flick a go.