Easy A review

picture from here

In a world dominated by mindless teen movies such as Twilight and High School Musical, it feels almost special to find a rare gem such as Easy A, which stands out from the crowd. Directed by Will Gluck, the film loosely follows the plot of the book 'The Scarlet Letter', adapting it to fit the modern day context of an American high school. A format often followed in teen movies, and it works successfully in many cases, such as in Ten Things I Hate About You or Cruel Intentions. The film features a fairly expected cast for a teen movie too, starring Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley, Twilight's Cam Gigandet, and Amanda Bynes, most known for the teen movie hits She's The Man and Hairspray. However, the first indication that the film might have something different to offer is the inclusion of Emma Stone, who plays the film's main character Olive. A rising star, who has appeared in comedy films such as Zombieland and Superbad, she makes it difficult to expect that the film will in any way be typical of it's genre.

The film tells the story of Olive Penderghast, a high school student who lies to her best friend about losing her virginity. Unsurprisingly, this is soon public knowledge in her school, yet Olive embraces it, using the school rumour mill to advance her social status. Her reputation continues to build, as she offers the school geeks the chance to claim they've slept with her, in return for store gift cards. She begins dressing more provocatively, with a red 'A' embroidered onto all her clothes (the film's most obvious connection to the book The Scarlet Letter), although she also faces mounting opposition from her peers at school, a 'mob' led by Amanda Bynes' character Marianne. Despite a fairly predictable and conventional plot, the film is delivered with some fantastic moments of comedy, most notably from Emma Stone herself, who carries the lead role respectably well, alongside her eccentric parents - played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, and the school's guidance counsellor, played by Lisa Kudrow, well known for her comedic acting in the sitcom Friends. The film also attempts to differentiate itself from the current low standards of teen films by making multiple references to 80s teen films, (mostly those made by John Hughes) such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Say Anything. On the other hand, whilst it is clearly aiming to show an appreciation of films made in the 80s – the era in which teen movies were at their best, it also shows an awareness of it's modern day audience, forming the story around a number of scenes where Olive talks directly to the camera, in the form of a webcast.

Overall, Easy A offers a comedic and more thoughtful alternative to the majority of teen films which have been released of late. The comedic talents of many of the cast bring it to life, and it gains itself some respectability from it's literary references to writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sylvia Plath. However, the predictable nature of the plot leads it into being nothing more than mindless entertainment at times, preventing it from perhaps being as brilliant as other popular teen comedies such as Mean Girls or Juno. Its ending almost painfully draws inspiration from a mash up of Say Anything and The Breakfast Club, demonstrating that clearly it is not quite as brilliant as the 80s teen films which it strives to be, but at least it's getting there. 


My rating for this film is 3.5 out of 5 

picture from here 

I got a bit paranoid over this review as it's hopefully getting published (exciting?!) but I'm hoping it's okay? I found it quite a difficult movie to review, I had to watch it twice as its one of those films that is mostly mindless entertainment. Not that that's a bad thing - I got to keep my copy of the DVD & I can see it becoming a bit of a guilty pleasure. <3 

A quick update.

It's been quite awhile since I wrote anything here, although partly thats probably due to lack of motivation as not many (if any) people read this, I've also been really busy. The last month or so has been filled with coursework (for film I'm making a short music documentary :D that's the exciting part, it's just long essays for my other subjects) and various other commitments like uni visit days & volunteering at Secret Cinema (I also have managed to acquire both a job and a boyfriend, goodness knows how...). I should also admit that whilst I've watched plenty of films, alot of the time it was to relax and I didn't really have reviewing on my mind. In light of this I've decided that whilst I will continue to try and write about every new film I watch but unfortunately I will probably have to write less. For most new/cinema films and films I either really love or really hate I will continue to write full length reviews. However, I'm thinking for other films I will probably just write 'a few thoughts' - a more informal post summarising the film & what I thought of it. I'm hoping this is a more realistic commitment to make & hopefully I can get back to posting regularly on here & fingers crossed gaining some sort of following! (: I'd be interested if anyone can think of other things I could include on this blog to make it more interesting to read? Maybe lists of my favourite films of a certain genre or something? Maybe I'm bitter but it seems like it's only ever fashion blogs that get noticed and followed, but I'd like to think there must be someone out there interested in a film blog? (provided that person actually blogs often haha). I recently wrote a review of the film Easy A for a teacher/ student feature in a magazine (totally forgotten what it's called), so I'll post that in a moment, and hopefully I'll actually get round to posting some reviews soon too - I'm hoping to finally see Black Swan on Wednesday (: