Easy A Review

Easy A wasn't exactly a film I was rushing out to see. After all, the film looked and turned out to be exactly what every single high school based movie was since the 80s. The bullshit of youth. Teenage minds with hormones flooding their brain as they try to find their place in the world and discover who they are, what is their purpose, and if they will ever find true love. It's one eye rolling second after the other as teenage angst leads to one forgettable problem after the other as the young viewers attempt to script the message and quotes into their every day interactions and the older viewers want to smack them all in the back of the head to try to wake them up to the reality that the world gets SO much harder.


The funny thing about Easy A was that throughout the film the film maker makes fun of the 80s style of the classic coming of youth story while at the same time following every single one of the rules.


Saving grace about the film? Emma Stone. First time I saw Emma Stone was in SuperBad and lately she has been in a lot of the headlines ever since she was cast in the Spiderman reboot. Stone has a cleverness and a charisma to her that makes you believe that she is the character that she is portraying. The way Matthew Lillard made many believe he was an actual punker after SLC Punk came out; after watching Easy A, you could almost believe that this was a biography of Stone's high school years just with the names and locations changed. She is a less indie hipster version of Ellen Page but better. Better because she is actually funny and not just funny for ironic sakes.


All in all my favorite part of Easy A was how they nailed the Jesus Freaks on the head. Growing up as a pastors kid I knew these people all too well. Believe me, I went to DC Talk and Petra concerts too. They are the "cool, next generation Christians" who grow their hair long, get into shape, wear the ironic t-shirts, don't shave, get tattoos and piercings, sit on their chairs backwards, and strum the guitar. There is ALWAYS some douche bag with a guitar. They act as though they are a new breed but they are just chameleons. Taking the form of anything they can in order to infiltrate any social group to force their message. They are the same religious bigots, just with a better alternative soundtrack.


In closing, we've seen this movie before plenty of times. At one point American Pie attempted to change the formula but it seems as though the pendulum has swung back pretty quickly to the original. Except now, they have the token gay character.


Final Grade: B- = Filled with situations that by no means could ever happen in real life. One of those movies where the entire school becomes obsessed with the problems of just a few students. However, a relatively funny film which didn't need to become overly vulgar as a fall back in order to get the jokes out. Not knocking vulgarity by any means, but it's nice to have none dick and fart jokes once in awhile.

In the scale of Burn It, Wait and Rent It, Wait and Buy It, Go and See It, Obsess Over It, Turn It Into A Religion: Wait and Rent It. Definitely worth a watch but doubtful if I'll ever want to watch it again. The best part of the film is the teachers rant about how our generation is obsessed with documenting our every waking thought on social networks. No need to buy the film though. Can't really imagine the dvd having too many extra features that I would want to sit through.