Emma Stone earns an ‘A’ for performance in teen comedy
The tradition of the teen comedy has been long and prosperous.
The latest film to follow in the footsteps of such classics as
”
Sixteen Candles,
”
”
Clueless,
”
and
”
The Breakfast Club
”
is
”
Easy A,
”
starring Emma Stone as a teenager who gets in over her head
upholding a reputation she doesn’t really deserve.
Emma Stone has been in several teen comedies including
”
Superbad
”
and
”
The House Bunny.
”
She also starred in
”
Zombieland.
”
She has a way of pulling off a sexy persona with an air of
awkwardness that is perfect for the role in her latest film.
Emma Stone earns an ‘A’ for performance in teen comedy
The tradition of the teen comedy has been long and prosperous. The latest film to follow in the footsteps of such classics as “Sixteen Candles,” “Clueless,” and “The Breakfast Club” is “Easy A,” starring Emma Stone as a teenager who gets in over her head upholding a reputation she doesn’t really deserve.
Emma Stone has been in several teen comedies including “Superbad” and “The House Bunny.” She also starred in “Zombieland.” She has a way of pulling off a sexy persona with an air of awkwardness that is perfect for the role in her latest film.
I’ve always been a sucker for teen comedies. I think it comes from growing up on the classic teen movies of the ’80s. Sure I was too young to watch them when they were originally released, but “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” got plenty of play on TV when I was growing up. Even in the ’90s some of my favorite movies fell into the genre – “Clueless,” “Drive Me Crazy,” “Never Been Kissed” and “10 Things I Hate About You” are all movies I’ve watched countless times.
With “Easy A”, writer Bert V. Royal and director Will Gluck are trying to draw out some nostalgia for the good, old days of teen movies. They even show a montage of clips from ’80s teen movies, including some of the ones mentioned above, as well as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Main character Olive (Emma Stone) mentions that life is not like a John Hughes movie in one scene, though since this is a movie it ends up a lot like one.
The director and writer do a good job of pulling it off. The movie has some of the same elements of the best teen movies from the 1980s. There are cliques. There are quirky adults. There is a little bit of romance. The main teen in the movie has some soul searching to do. And there are a lot of laughs in the movie. This movie just has a modern update as text messages, cell phones and webcams play integral roles in the story.
Olive is a straight-laced student who gets good grades, never gets detention and is close with her parents, played by the very funny Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Sometimes adults in teen movies are treated as an afterthought, but Tucci and Clarkson are amusing.
Basically Olive is one of those girls on campus who isn’t really noticed by anyone. That is until she tells one little lie to her best friend that snowballs out of control. She doesn’t want to go camping with Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and her family one weekend so she lies to her best friend and says she has a date. When the weekend is over Rhiannon wants all the details of the date. In the school restroom, Olive tells Rhiannon that she slept with the guy. It’s not true and Olive expects the news to stop there. But Marianne (Amanda Bynes,) a pious member of a Christian youth group on campus, overhears their conversation.
Marianne spreads the word around campus that Olive lost her virginity and soon Olive is getting a lot more attention on campus. The girls give her dirty looks and the guys check her out. Olive doesn’t do anything to stop the rumors and soon even finds herself fueling them when a friend asks her for help.
When Olive finds herself in detention with Brandon (Dan Byrd) after she makes a rude comment about another student in English class, she confesses to Brandon that none of the rumors are true. When Brandon says he is gay and that’s why he gets beat up all time at school, Olive suggests that he could benefit from lying about his own experience with the opposite sex. Soon Brandon is begging Olive to pretend to be his girlfriend so that he can disprove the rumors about him being gay (which are actually true.)
The two come up with a plan to have a fake tryst at the next high school party. They show up pretending to be drunk, duck into a bedroom and make a lot of noise. When they emerge from the room, Brandon is every guy’s hero while Olive finds that her stock has actually gone down. Even her best friend Rhiannon is worried about her reputation.
As the movie goes on, Olive quickly finds there is a double standard in high school. Her best friend dumps her. The only guys who approach her are ones who have found out about Brandon’s deal with her and want her to have fake relations with them so that they can become more popular. The Christian group on campus vows to save her from her sins. And the rumors just get more out of control.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com. She writes a blog at http://melissa-movielines.blogspot.com where she writes about movies, TV, food and more.
