Easy A (2010)

People Who Matter:  

Emma Stone:  Olive 

Penn Badgley:  Todd

Amanda Bynes:  Marianne 

Easy A is a simple idea - take something that almost everyone can relate to (high school gossip) and mix it with the public conception of sex (taboo vs. accepted), make it funny, and churn it out.  What Easy A does is take that simple idea and turn it into something great.  Emma Stone has, with this one role, transformed herself from a solid supporting actress (Superbad) to breakout star, and she does it so freaking well.  But it's not just Stone that brought her A-game.  Everyone from the boy she has a crush on (Todd, played by Penn Padgley of Gossip Girl fame), to her parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson), to a Bible-thumping drama queen (Marianne, played by Amanda Bynes), to her quirky English teacher (Mr. Griffith, played by Thomas Haden Church) and his estranged guidance counselor wife (Mrs. Griffith, played by the ever-so-lovely Lisa Kudrow) make this movie.

Olive Penderghast (Stone) is just a normal girl at a normal high school.  She's roughing through her teenage years just like every one of us did at some point.  She doesn't really know who she wants to be or what she wants to do.  But she does know that her best friend has crazy parents (even by California standards, which is saying a lot) and she doesn't want to spend the weekend with them.  They are nudists, by the way, which Olive was made all too aware of one night when her friends' mom's boob introduced itself to her face.  I can't say I blame her for not wanting an encore presentation.  

So, instead of admitting that she spent the weekend alone in her room jamming out to "Pocket Full of Sunshine," she fabricates this little white lie to tell her friend about having hooked up with a college boy (that seems safe, since no one would have met him).  It all seems innocent until Olive is overheard by the school crazy, a religious nutcase named Marianne.  Of course, Marianne sees it as her duty to warn the other girls from following in Olive's slutty footsteps, so she tells everyone exactly what she heard. 

Of course, this is high school, so the news spreads like wildfire.  Suddenly Olive isn't just this average girl walking the halls.  People are starting to notice her.  And she eats it up.  Soon, her gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd), sick of being punched in the face for being who he is, approaches her for a win-win situation:  she pretends to have sex with him and he gives her a gift card to Target.  And a vibrator, but that's beside the point.  It seems like an innocent trade-off; she's helping a friend get the gay heat off of him, and she's getting money.  Well, a gift card... but that's almost as good as money.  Almost.  

Now, everyone thinks Olive is a slut because she has (GASP!) slept with two guys, one of which was a homosexual.  She must be very confused.  Anyways, soon, she is being approached by every nerd, fat kid, and loser in the school to pretend she's had relations with them while she reaps the monetary benefits.  In all actuality, she's helping them out by getting them some street cred, and she's finally getting the attention that so many teenage girls crave. 

All the while, her English teacher Mr. Griffith is giving his snarky comments on "The Scarlett Letter," which of course they are reading in class.  I don't know of any high school that hasn't banned that book, but again... whatever.  I'll bite.  It's obvious that Mr. Griffith is the obligatory "cool" teacher that every school has.  Olive seems especially interested in her reading material and seems to identify with Hester Prynne and is soon gallivanting around in corsets with her very own scarlet A sewn on.  

Of course, the rug does eventually get pulled out from under Olive.  It's not all fun and games when you're having pretend sex with half the school.  However, with the help of her parents (who are uproariously funny and both also named after food, which is weird) and a soul-bearing webcam, eventually everything works itself out.  Mr. Griffith learns the truth about his marriage, Woodchuck Todd becomes an actual person instead of just a mascot, and crazy Jesus freaks get outted for being hypocrites.  Even Brandon has a happy ending with an extremely muscular black guy.

It's impossible to pinpoint one thing I loved about this movie.  I love that it tip-toed through some very dangerous waters with the whole sex for money thing, even though it was just for show.  I love the hilarious dialogue between all of the characters.  I loved how the typical sexual roles between men and women were reversed.   I loved the John Hughes references.  But most of all, I loved how this could easily have taken place at my high school, or at any high school, really.  The only unbelievable thing throughout the whole movie was that Emma Stone could possibly walk down the halls anywhere and not be noticed. 

9 out of 10