Review of Easy A (2010) by Lexi S — 23 May 2012
Frustrating, low on laughs, and boringly twee. The tone of the script is pulled by a terrible, confusing retro-anti-smarminess, which is actually just plain pandering -- even worse than Juno -- ending in several walloping catharses.
A good microcosm could be the first "Pocket Full Of Sunshine" scene: Olive opens a greeting card with that song as its auto-play, rejects the song as stupid, and then opens the card again repeatedly to hear it... cue musical scene. Stupid premise --> absurd anti-joke (funny, the first few times) --> stupid again (as it's belabored beyond originality) --> awful dump of positive-seeming, pat-on-the-back sentimentality.
There are a few accidentally funny moments -- "That rhymed... I liked it." and "Not now, Quizno's!" and "Remember to cross 'Watch The Bucket List' off our bucket list!" But all of those are short, few and far between, and impossible to fully enjoy. There's a nice, sincere moment early in the film, with Dan Byrd pleading for Olive to help him, but most of the rest of it is hateful and ugly.
This review of Easy A (2010) was written by Lexi S on 23 May 2012.
Easy A has generally received positive reviews.
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