Easy A (2010)

This was the first leading performance from the actress, whose name became part of the infamous "envelopegate" Best Picture mistake at the Oscars, she deserved her awards for La La Land, and I looked forward to seeing her earliest big break, directed by Will Gluck (Friends with Benefits, Annie). Basically in Ojai, California, 17-year-old Olive Penderghast (Golden Globe nominated Emma Stone) lies to her best friend Rhiannon Abernathy (Aly Michalka) to get out of going on a camping trip with Rhiannon's parents, Olive tells her that she went on a date. In fact, Olive stays home to listen to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine", a song played in a greeting card from her grandmother. The following Monday, Olive is pressed by Rhiannon about what happened on this unreal date, Olive lies that she lost her virginity to a guy from college. Prissy and strictly religious Christian student Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears their conversation, she gossips and Olive's lie spreads like wild fire, she it at first uncomfortable with the attention. Olive tells the truth to her friend Brandon (Dan Byrd), he explains that he is being bullied for being homosexual, he asks Olive to pretend to sleep with him, to be accepted by everyone as a "straight stud". Brandon convinces Olive to help her, behind a closed bedroom door they pretend to have sex at a party. Following a fight with Rhiannon, who calls her a "dirty skank", Olive finds the attention towards her increasing as flattering, so she embraces and counteracts her "school tramp" image. Olive wears more provocative clothes, stitching a red "A" to everything she wears, this is a reference to the novel The Scarlet Letter, it stands for "adulteress". Boys who usually have no luck with girls start to beg Olive to help them, to say that she had sex with them, to increase their popularity, she agrees, in exchange for gift cards for various stores, in turn increasing her reputation. But then things get worse, Marianne's boyfriend Micah (Cam Gigandet) contracts chlamydia from sleeping with school guidance counsellor Mrs. Griffith (Lisa Kudrow), Micah blames Olive, Mrs. Griffith asks Olive to cover up the affair, so she can keep her job and her reputation, Olive agrees. Rhiannon becomes part of Marianne's religious clique, they begin harassing Olive in order to get her to leave school. Olive has an ill-fated date with Anson (Jake Sandvig), who wants to pay her for sex, and not just pretend, then she starts to reconnect with school mascot and her old love interest "Woodchuck" Todd (Penn Badgley). Todd tells Olive that he does not believe any of the rumours about her, because he remembers the time when she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive then begins to ask everyone she lied for to help her out by telling the truth, but Brandon and Micah have left town, and everyone else refuses, they enjoy their newfound popularity and don't want the truth to get out. Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth, Olive threatens to expose her affair, but Mrs. Griffith rebuffs her, saying no one will believe her. Out of spite, Olive tells the truth to Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church), he believes her and separates from his wife. After Olive talks openly about her situation to her parents, open-minded mother Rosemary (Patricia Clarkson) and equally supportive father Dill (Stanley Tucci), she comes up with a plan to get everything out in the open. Olive does a suggestive song and dance number at the school pep rally to get everyone's attention, and tells them to watch her via web cam, in fact she confesses what she has done, many are seen watching, including the various boys Olive helped. Olive texts Rhiannon, apologising for lying to her, she finishes her web broadcast, Todd is outside on a lawnmower telling her to come outside. Olive signs off the broadcast, saying she may lose her virginity to Todd, and proudly declares "it's nobody's goddamn business", Olive goes outside, she and Todd share a kiss and are seen riding off on the lawnmower. Also starring Malcolm McDowell as Principal Gibbons, Fred Armisen as Pastor, Morgan Rusler as Mr. Abernathy and Nikki Tyler-Flynn as Mrs. Abernathy. Stone has great charisma as the girl who is flattered by the attention she gains as the floozy of the school, it is a very simple story of how one lie about a non-existent fling can get blown out of proportion and add to up to amusingly increasing consequences, and it has a very witty script, a smart and fun teen comedy. Very good!

BOY, DO I NEED TO LOOK FURTHER THAN THE IMDb SCORE BEFORE I BUY A MOVIE.Yes, indeed, I bought a Blu-ray of this steaming pile of crap simply because it rates 7.1 on IMDb. In my experience, the score I see on IMDb is usually a reliable guide to the quality (or otherwise) of what's reviewed. But, like any such thing, it's not always reliable. How very true here.This movie is so appallingly bad that I really don't want to waste more than the 92 minutes I've just wasted in watching it to try to come up with the words that might convey just how bad it is.I feel insulted by how lazy the producers were in coming up with this poor excuse for cinema and more than a bit ripped off at having shelled out hard cash for something so banal and so painfully awful.The one saving grace? Simple Minds "Don't You (Forget About Me)" over the end credits. Everything that goes before it should be avoided.JMV

This is a teen comedy film set in and around a high school in Ojai in Southern California. Emma Stone plays a 17-year-old girl who becomes infamous after she falsely claims to have had sex.Stone is a grossly overrated actress and none of the characters in the film are likable. Having her character become a notorious slut, in 21st century California, just for having sex once, is ludicrous. Most 17-year-olds have had sex.I don't know what the makers of this film were aiming for. The dialogue was toned down a lot from the original script and it is far too tame to be a raunchy sex comedy along the lines of a female version of American Pie. If Stone is trying to be this generation's Molly Ringwald, then she fails due to lack of likablity and acting talent.

It's a dumb teen movie with some good things. Emma Stone is one of them. She does a fantastic job in the movie. It was also interesting to see the decisions her character made that got her into the place where she ended up in (really hard to explain without spoiling).The other good part is the rumor spreading-sequence. I found that it was shot in an interesting way. There are lots also lots of bad parts. -It was a dumb teen with dumb teen movie clichés -The tone was comedic in some scenes but very serious in the next one -Lisa Kudrow was very annoying