Easy A is an amusing, teen comedy spin on The Scarlett Letter. The movie takes its inspiration from the classic (but hard to read or enjoy) novel. Easy A is very much in the vain of Clueless or 10 Things I Hate About You, but its script isn’t as clever as either of those two films. It’s more mildly amusing than laugh out loud funny. Still, Easy A hits on some truths about the pain of high school life and the obvious double standard involving sex. Guys get congrats and body bumps for having a lot of sex, while girls are thought of as whores and sluts, which doesn’t seem fair in the least. Emma Stone is the star of Easy A, and she’s the reason to see the movie, a true star in the making. Sexy, sassy, and funny, with a sharp wit and a distinctive voice, she rules the movie the way Alicia Silverstone did in her classic teen flick Clueless.

Emma Stone plays Olive, a teen who feels invisible until she agrees to a public display of fake sex (the funniest scene in the movie) with a gay student who is being bullied. She gets a rep as being a slut around school and she decides to just run with it, helping out other outcasts with the same scheme. Of course, it all goes out of control as Olive struggles with her new rep, battles a smamry right wing Christian group (led by a cartoony, way over the top Amanda Bynes), and tries to make amends with her former best friend and new potential love interest. Amusing supporting turns abound from pros like Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson (who looks thrilled not be in a depressing, shitty indie no one will see) as Olive’s loving parents, Thomas Hayden Church (always welcome) as Olive’s hipster teacher and Lisa Kudrow as her guidance counselor. Olive is branded a slut, and brands a scarlett A on her new, more revealing attire.

Easy A’s script is not as clever as it thinks, but it sometimes hits the mark, as in the case of the cartoony Christian group who shove their views down the throats of everyone around them. It has scenes that will make you smile and others with a lot of heart and truth behind them. Easy A isn’t worth an A, but because of Emma Stone, it’s a solid B.

Grade: B

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