Here's a movie that seems like your typical mindless teenage dramedy that we've all seen (or heard of) dozens of times before. That would only be fractionally accurate. It is a movie about teenagers and high school and there is both drama and comedy... but it's presentation is far from typical. Olive is an intelligent and well-read 17 year old who's never dated (and given how attractive she is, this is the most unbelievable part of the movie) and is therefore, obviously a virgin. After being less than truthful with her best friend about a fictional encounter with a college boy over the weekend she is, within moments, now the school slut. (The villain here being the cell phones that kids use to propagate such rumors.) Olive then leverages this new found notoriety into a sort of enterprise wherein she assists boys by advertising her encounters with them in exchange for goods and services. And then she basks in the attention she gets while at the same time, becoming more and more outcast from her peers as a result of her bedroom exploits. Simple enough, right?The focus of the film is not on the individual encounters (most are just alluded to in passing), but on the problems that arise from being ostracized from your peers. I expect this is mostly targeted at the women and girls, but the boys are represented as well in that you've got all these guys coming to Olive to provide this service so they can be accepted. In a way, the guys are selling their social rejection credits to Olive who re-purposes them to garner attention. As you may expect, this does not turn out well for Olive, but that's not what makes this movie so much fun to watch. It's the writing. In a way, Easy A reminds me of Juno in its constant and clever application of smart, witty, sarcastic, and ironic dialogue, while also mixing in dozens of delicious pop culture references that will resonate with different viewers at different times for different reasons. Alright, there were probably a few too many times where I was the only person laughing, but I don't care. I was having a blast.
Watch. Enjoy. Laugh. Try not to fall in love with Emma Stone, I dare ya. Also, any scene with Olive's family is pure gold.
