Review: Easy A

Films set in the teen world and more specifically in the American high school are ten-a-penny, however most of them are not as funny as Easy A. The film concerns Emma Stone's Olive Pendergrast, a girl whose completely ignored at her school and quite likes it that way. The film starts with Olive adressing us via a webcam talking about various lies that she's told and how they've got her into trouble. After lying about her first sexual encounter, Olive then helps out a gay friend so he won't get bullied for his sexuality and soon she is being paid by various dweeby lads to lie about variuos sexual endeavours. Her lies find her target of an extreme Christian group lead by the scarily nice Marianne. Eventually she decides that her lies are costing her her friendships and her reputation and so the film comes full circle with her revelations via webcam.

Easy A's main problem is that because of it's hyped-up sexual content it has been awarded a 15 certificate in this country and therefore its key audience won't get to see the film. Which is a shame because this is a cracker of a film and up there with the best teen films. Although it has been likened to Mean Girls and Clueless I would say it is closer in terms to Juno thanks in part both to its witty and clever script and its breakout lead performance from Emma Stone. Stone, who has had to endure some roles in truly awful movies like The Rocker and The House Bunny, plays Olive has incredibly snappy and quick but not as thick-skinned as she thought. As the film goes on and we get to the inevitable emotional content, Stone never lets Olive become soft instead she just realises she needs someone to lean on. Stone is ably supported by some fantastic older actors who never outstay their welcome or overshadow the central story. Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, as Olive's parents, play well off each other and are incredibly warm but also have a bit of a wild side. They were so good in fact that I began to wish that they were my parents. Thomas Hayden Church is also great as Olive's literature teacher and somewhat confident while Lisa Kudrow and Malcolm McDowell are also on good form as the guidance councller and principal respectively. Amanda Bynes also makes up for starring in so many apalling teen films by giving us the holier-than-thou Marianne and reminding us what a gifted comic actress she is, it is a shame that this will be her last role as she has given up acting at the ripe old age of 24.

The film's other plus point is in its cultural references. The film's title refers to Olive embroiding a scarlet A on her chest in a similar way to that of the heroine of The Scarlet Letter did to signify she was an adulterer. The film rips on literary references and there is quite a nice Mark Twain film but Olive also references John Hughes and other 1980s teen films and wonders why her life isn't like that. There are a couple of sore points mainly the relationship between Olive and the quirky Todd which seems to be there to give Olive a happy ending and also at times it feels a tad cliched but this is a smart film with a great lead performance which will surely find a lot of fans when it comes to DVD.