Easy A

“Real life isn’t like a John Hughes Movie”. Imagine 1 little white lie turned into 1 little rumour, and how it can change your entire identity, and that’s what it’s like to be in high school. Meet Olive Pendergast played by Emma Stone, she is a normal student at a normal high school, who told her best friend a little lie about losing her virginity. After a series events she goes from being the girl no one knew to the girl everyone talked about. Also starring Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd, Thomas Hayden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Aly Michalka and Amanda Bynes.

Olive Pendergast (Stone) was your average invisible teenager at a normal high school, until quite begrudgingly she lied and told her friend Rhiannon (Michalka) that she lost her virginity, they were overheard by Jesus worshipping Marianne (Bynes) who decides to make it her mission to stop Olive’s depravity and “get her the hell out of here”. Brandon (Byrd) a young gay man who is sick of being tormented enlists Olive’s help to convince that he is a normal straight guy. Afterwards the whole school starts talking about her constantly. At first she thrives on the attention she loves being known so much she even sews a red “A” on her clothes like Hester Prynne from “The Scarlett Letter”. She soon realises that her “reputation is not all it’s cracked up to be, people are saying horrible things about her, it destroys a marriage, and starts to ruin her chances with the Todd (Badgley) the one guy she really cares about. She realises she has to tell the truth about everything from the start, which may be harder than she thinks.

Emma Stone is fabulous as Olive she completely embodies and becomes the character. The “House Bunny” star is quickly cementing herself as one of Hollywood’s great rising stars. The way she portrays Olive you believe her plight to go from a total nobody to the school somebody. You watch as it ruins her life and you find yourself really caring about how it turns out. Amanda Bynes plays the role of uptight, Jesus worshipping Marianne to the T. She is the character you love to hate, and she does it excellently.

The writers have done a great job with the similarity between the movie and real life high school. It is a little dramatic obviously, no one is really going to sew a red “A” on all their clothes. However the premise of the story could happen quite easily. Rumours in high school get out of hand, a person could have said something and then in 20 minutes the whole school could have heard and it would sound so much worse. It shows you amusingly how people can turn on you without even a shred of proof.

Easy A is a highly amusing tale of a rumour gone way too far. It highlights he ridiculousness of high school and the way information in spread. Great acting and a writing turn this film into one of the years funniest. I recommend to anyone looking for a thoroughly enjoyable time.