Easy A: "A is for Awesome"

I’ve gotta say, Easy A surprised me. I fully expected to be bored to death with another teen movie’s oversimplified dramatics and cheesy one-liners. But this was a rarity in its genre: a smart film. From the beginning, Olive Penderghast (played by the likable Emma Stone) is much more interesting than most teens portrayed in films. She’s smart, seriously witty, and she pokes fun at herself (and at the movie itself in a strange meta-narrative that surprised me with its sophistication). As a bonus, the plot took some turns that I didn’t see coming, which is a rare luxury indeed in a teen comedy, and the journey brings you to a pretty meaningful place in the end. I didn’t feel hit over the head with sentimentality, but I appreciated the film’s final message.

The last complimentary thing I’ll say about this film (I don’t want to sound too much like I’m gushing here) is that I really liked the relationship between Olive and her parents (played by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci). These parents weren’t written as typical teen-movie parents. They were full-fledged characters in themselves, and they treated Olive as they would an intelligent adult. You could also see where Olive got her intelligence and spunk, as her parents had some of the best lines in the film.

When all’s said and done, this is still a teen comedy. It has its problems, just like any film in its genre, but I think it’s above and beyond most of its competitors. The film has a lot more meat to it than the trailers imply, and it’s definitely at least worth a rent.