Year: 2010
Director: Will Gluck
Writer: Bert V. Royal
A small lie about how Olive spent her weekend spreads, and soon the whole school knows about it. When Olive promises to help a friend, pretending to have sex with him, makes everybody call her a slut.
Easy A is one of the very, very few teen movies, that actually make me laugh. And of course, Easy A isn't just fun and games: even though it's a comedy, it has some pretty heavy stuff. The movie seems like a really funny, easy movie, but it gets almost unbearably heavy towards the end, it's frustrating.
I love the story and the writing in this movie. The story is something that could at least partly tempt the audience of teenagers, and even some older and / or more mature viewers. It's a simple story, but still it has good themes, and of course the message it sends is very important. And the dialogue in this movie... It's seriously so amazing. It's funny and fresh, maybe not exactly realistic, but this movie has some of the best lines in these kind of movies. The dialogue is pure gold.
If there's anything that I wonder about this movie, it's how quickly the rumours spread. Mostly I'm surprised, because I don't think I've ever heard a rumour about someone's sexual life. I understood sort of , if someone was taking money for sex, that I could see spreading, but I don't know. Maybe it's just Finland, or maybe I'm just hanging around with the kind of people, who really don't care about other people's private lives. Could be the latter one.
And now to the message and purpose etcetera, the moral behind the story. I hate the people in this movie, I mean the other high school students, and some of the adults too. I mean, a girl "sleeps" with too people, and she is considered a slut, I mean really? Two people? Okay, to be honest, even if a girl would sleep with a hundred of guys, there still would be no reason to call her slut. I'm writing this, because some people still are struggling with this: someone's sex life is not anyone's business, and anyone should be able to have or not have sex as much as they want, if it's consensual, and you have consent. Another notable thing about this movie is how the guys who pretend to sleep with Olive aren't considered as "man-whores". There isn't even a proper "bad word" for a man who sleeps around. Even that tells you something about the double-standard. Anyway, the guys get praised and called studs while poor Olive gets called a skank and a slut and every bad word there is for a woman who sleeps with a lot of people.
This will bug me forever, and it should bug you too. If it doesn't, watch this movie. If you have seen the movie, and it still doesn't bug you, then I don't know, you really should think about why it doesn't bug you - you might have been influenced by institutionalised misogyny.
But I have to love Olive as a character. I mean she's a really hilarious girl, she's truly amazing. She's an example how someone can have to extremities in them. I mean Olive is strong, she's really strong, because she can handle what people are throwing at her. But that doesn't mean it doesn't get to her, or that she doesn't care. She is both strong and vulnerable, which shows how well written she is. I just had an argument about how it's hard for actors and actresses to play confident AND insecure characters, like as if they couldn't play both. Well, Emma Stone proves she can play both strong and vulnerable, confident and still insecure in the same role. I love both the character Olive and the actress Emma Stone very much. And Emma Stone can rock any kind of role, she's truly amazing actress.
Easy A is fun, but still holds an important message. It's both light-hearted and heavy, a perfect amount of both. I warmly recommend Easy A to anyone, because even if you'd only be into some really artsy movies, and couldn't even dare to look at Easy A, it's a good example of well-written comedy with a two-dimensional female leading character.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
8 / 10
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