Review of Easy A (2010) by Shiira — 18 Sep 2010

Pinpointing the exact moment where Julia Roberts became a star in Garry Marshall's "Pretty Woman" was a tangible instant, a light source, previously unseen, suddenly emanating from the jacuzzi.

It was Julia singing "Kiss", out of tune and out to charm, punctuated with kissing noises, that set the Steel Magnolia apart from the other Magnolias and Mystics. Emma Stone, last seen in "Zombieland", now seen in "Easy A", has a moment like that, when the earworm(Natasha Bedington's "Pocketful of Sunshine") which enters Olive's head, slowly and surely burrows deeper and deeper over the course of a lonely weekend, with perfect editing, Wes Anderson-like titles, and the right shaggy mutt, shows how singing some disposable, yet insinuatingly catchy pop song can turn into a compulsion, a temporary full-blown neurosis, and a cure for the blues, while, of course, charming the pants off the audience.

Stone plays a virgin, Olive Pendergast, who is made to feel inadequate by the sexual exploits of her worldly best friend Rhiannon(Aly Michalka), two girls, the virgin and the whore, who aren't all that dissimilar from their twentieth-century counterparts played by Thora Birch and Mena Suvari in Sam Mendes' "American Beauty".

In the Mendes film, the friendship sours the moment Jane(Birch) embarks on a love affair with Ricky(Wes Bentley), an unexpected development that intimidates the usually undauntable Angela(Suvari), since as it turns out, her boastful talk about wanting to do "it" with Jane's father is all an act.

She's a virgin too, like Rhiannon, perhaps, which would explain why the daughter of nudists would turn against Olive, when the purported wild girl should be thrilled to have a partner-in-crime(ala Nicky Reed and Evan Rachel Wood in Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen": the mother played by Patricia Clarkson has a little Holly Hunter in her).

Previously, with bravado and post-feminist glee, Rhiannon squeals in delight upon learning that her caller ID name on Olive's cell phone is "big t**s", a sure indication that Olive may have a body image problem, as Jane did in "American Beauty", when she explores the possibility of breast implants.

She feels like a "plain Jane", so does Olive, that's why the good girl turns "bad"; the good girl feels the pressure to compete, but the moviegoer may want to hedge his/her bets that the good girl may be in a one-woman race against a c*cktease.

Who can forget the scene between Suvari and Kevin Spacey, when the jailbait temptress reverts back into a quivering schoolgirl, as Lester gets ready to ravish her. (He didn't realize the rose petals in his sex fantasy about Angela, signified a deflowering.

) As played by Spacey, Lester Burnham had no morals. Whereas in "Easy A", the English teacher played by Thomas Haden Church, is kept in check by some girls(Amanda Bynes is their queen bee) who belong to an on-campus church group.

Sanctimonious and annoying as they may appear to be, the moviegoer should be aware of the sexual overtones, albeit Victorian ones, which makes Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" a fairly incendiary book; a book that could be employed to help seduce a bright and naive female student by some unscrupulous teacher.

The wife's affair with a male student is treated like a surprise plot twist, suggesting that the transgression was supposed to occur between Olive and Mr. Griffith. But alas, while Christian values take its lumps, Christian values save the day; saves the teacher's job, because Olive never does turn into Hester Prynne, never commits adultery.

The "A" stitched to her dress signifies nothing; it's merely a fashion accessory. She never does get that easy "A" from the English teacher. She's a good girl. And that's progress.

Back in 1990, to be America's Sweetheart, Julia Roberts played the hooker with a heart of gold, whereas Emma Stone, in a long line of heir apparents since then, plays a fake hooker who takes the fake orgasm to the next level.