MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Easy A Rated PG 13

Directed by Will Gluck.  Starring Emma Stone, Thomas Hayden Church.

Photo © 2010 Sony Pictures/Screen Gems
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Regular readers of these reviews know how I feel about irony – I’m sick of it! 

Easy A is a comedy that is so ironic that I propose a new film category.  Along with comedy, drama, and tragedy, let’s just call the genre irony so I can stop having to rant about it. 

How ironic is Easy A?  It’s a loose reworking of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter about Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman in Boston who is forced to wear the letter A on her dress after being caught in adultery.  And, yes, Olive Penderghast (Stone), the heroine of this film, wears the letter A on her blouses. But Olive is a virgin with a bad reputation. 

It begins when Olive invents a story for her promiscuous friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) about a wild weekend with a community college boy.  Her lie is overheard in the girls’ room by Marianne (Amanda Bynes), a leader in the high school Christian youth organization. 

Rumors begin to fly and Olive decides to go with the flow, denying nothing.  Soon there are legions of geeky boys asking Olive to say that she slept with them, creating the illusion of experience and manhood for them. 

Throughout the course of the film Olive remains virginal, not even taking a sip of beer at a friend’s party.  She does get in trouble for a crude comment about a fellow student (which is quickly dismissed after a short lecture in the principal’s (Malcolm McDowell) office). 

Olive’s parents (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci) are free spirits who are open-minded and non-judgmental through it all.  This comedy takes place in its own universe, which bears nothing to reality (and little in common to the John Hughes teen comedies of the 80s that it wants to emulate). 

Sad to say, it’s hard to believe that today’s high school students would be shocked by open sexual behavior.  The film’s depiction of Christianity is meant to be a goof on 19th century Puritanism, but it is an unfair and outdated caricature. 

I laughed a lot watching this film (it’s really very clever), but the more I thought about Easy A, the less I liked it.  If promiscuity is considered a big joke, why does this film act like it’s proclaiming a liberating message? 

Pitchfork/Halo Ratings:
Two halos.
An entertaining and absurd comedy propelled by an engaging performance by Emma Stone.

Three pitchforks.
Mucho innuendo and occasional swearing; some real ethical problems are laughed off; teenage drinking; disrespect for religion.

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