Easy A

Emma Stone stars in "Easy A"

      Emma Stone is officially a movie star. Oh, her talent was on display in such films as "The Rocker", "Superbad", and "Zombieland" but this film puts her front and center and lets her take advantage of pretty much everything she does well.

       Now, going in, I expected this film to be total dreck. The marketing was terrible and played up all the wrong parts of the film. I guess it was an attempt to cater to the tween and teen girl demographic. Well, the sad news here, is that this film is smarter than the intended audience and it knows it. There are so many talented people in this movie and all of them get something interesting to do. Nearly all of the major players are 3-dimensional characters.

        Emma Stone plays Olive Penderghast, a social outcast who only gains popularity when a false rumor gets around her school that she slept with some guy from a local community college. That over simple plot device is really the only sin the film commits. Olive is smart, witty, sarcastic, and just plain easy to adore. For those reasons alone it is impossible to imagine that she is dateless week after week, but she is also easy on the eyes.

         So with her new found notoriety, Olive sets out to do some good by helping a homosexual boy, who is often the target of bullies, and get the school to think he is a hetero stud. It works and she is compensated financially. To her, this is not prostituting because no sex is involved. Plus, she gets the glee of duping the plebian masses that make up her student body. Olive consults her very understanding, very funny parents and they offer genuine and sage advice. "Juno" started a trend that Olive's parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, respectively) continue. Her parents are people and they talk like it. They are not paint by numbers or a set of simpletons who dole out advice or punishment as if it came from a manual. Olive wishes her life were a John Hughes movie but Hughes, for all his talents, tended to paint adults with a broad brush.

       So things get out of hand and Olive begins considering the ethics of what she is doing. An unexpected plot twist involving some members of the local god-squad also moves the story away from easy to mine territory which could have mired the film in banality.

        In short, "Easy A" succeeds in leaps and bounds. The writers and director all deserve credit for a truly great entry into the teen movie universe but the real hero is the casting director. Whoever said, "we need Emma Stone" deserves an award of their own. Nobody else could have given this role what she did. Let's hope she inspires a little more independent thought than that brainless Bella Swan does.

       "Easy A" gets 8 out of 10. Seriously, go see this film.