People.. I present to you Emma Stone, the new Lindsay Lohan.
Aight so from the first looks at this, Easy A appears to be just another generic teen sex comedy and we all know how wonderful that genre is. But naw.. I love Easy A. Ever heard of The Breakfast Club? Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Sixteen Candles? Some Kind of Wonderful? You know... those 80's teen comedies that actually had a story and characters to them, yeah Easy A is that... plus the generic teen sex comedy bits.
So we have Emma Stone of Superbad and
Zombieland picking up where Lindsay Lohan left off to do that line of cocaine in a surprisingly enjoyable love letter to John Hughes. We have Olive, a clean cut girl unpopular student that unintentionally starts a rumour that she had sex with a college guy which earns her notoriety status around school and she begins using her newfound fame to advance her social and financial standings.... until everything blows up in her face.
This is probably the first time since 10 Things I Hate About You that I have seen a teen comedy film draw inspiration from cultural and literal muses and turn it into an intelligent story of it's own. Easy A is a smart modern adaptation of The Scarlett Letter with elements of John Hughes and other iconic 80's films being referenced here and there. This is good. Cause see... in most teen flicks.. we just have fart jokes and lotso boobies, i.e American Pie, which is seriously think was the starting point of the youth of the world's degrading intellect.
The writing for Easy A is wonderful, walking that fine line between witty, sublime, sassy and honest; with great comedy that isn't "in-your-face" nor crude to draw quick laughs. However I do slightly condone Easy A's ultra liberal stance, through no fault of me being a bible hugging Jesus freak but it does go way in to libertarian-ism that it just becomes flat out dumb in most parts. Ahem. Stanley Tucci.
The best bits of Easy A could also be the most controversial ones which were the crazy Evangelist Christians led by Amanda Bynes in this. These guys are freaks. Crazy. Insane. But they are just so hilarious to watch. And I can defend this movie because I used to be a Christian from a crazy Evangelical church that all of the crazy racist religious comments that Amanda Bynes make in this are absolutely 100% plausible. We Christians are some pieces of work I tells ya. Btw, what the hell happened to Amanda Bynes. She's so... fat now. Not to mentioned tanned. But it's great seeing her out of retirement doing what I've always loved about her.
However that star of the film is Emma Stone who is literally on the cusp of becoming America's newest teen goddess. Stone gives a terrific performance of implied intellect, wit and indifference with underlying warmth and honesty. Not so often do we get a character in a teen comedy that actually acts like a real human being, making real rational decisions and being funny doing real rational things. Emma Stone is probably the most bankable teen star out there now, I just hope to God she doesn't fall into the Katherine Heigl trap.
The film is enjoyable, smart, charming, character-central with amazing cross-generational appeal that will certainly elevate Emma Stone and the director to awesomeness. Power to ya'll. Now I'm gonna go listen to some Simple Minds.
RATING: 7/10
