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Easy A (AF)
Stars: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Aly Michalka
Director: Will Gluck
Another week, another American high school movie. But if you think youve already had your fill of catty cliques, hunky jocks, cute cheerleaders and all the other familiar components of the genre, think again. Here, thanks to Glucks light but telling handling of the sharp screenplay (Bert V Royal) and, particularly, Stones amusing performance.
Shes particularly effective talking to camera as she confides her plight to the world at large through the Internet. There are two sides to every story she tells the computer camera. This is my side and the right one.
And the story? In an amusing riff on Hester Prynnes scorned adultress in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Stone ends up wearing a red A when she achieves notoriety at school by being branded a superslut after she lies to a friend that she has lost her virginity and her white lie goes viral. Stone decides to stick with her newly-found ill-repute and dresses and acts the part making her the target for Bynes and her straight-laced moral group and pretending to make wild and noisy love at a party to a homosexual student who is keen to stay the closet while pretending to run with the pack.
While the resolution is never in doubt, getting there is enjoyable. Engaging cynicism runs through the film, heartlessly defusing both potential clichés and incipient sentimentality and the casting of the supporting roles adds to the entertainment. Tucci and Clarkson, especially are a delight as Stones unconventional parents, Kudrow (the one from Friends who can actually act) has a telling cameo as the school counsellor and English teacher Haden Churchs wife and McDowell revives his career as the offbeat headmaster with a defiant English accent.
While I wouldnt posit Easy A as a masterpiece, Stone et al raise it high above the usual multiplex level high school movie. And how could you fail to enjoy hearing a bookseller inform Our Heroine that the Bible is in best-sellers right next to Twilight.
Alan Frank
USA 2010. UK Distributor: Sony. Colour.
92 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.
Review date: 10 Oct 2010