Easy A (PG-13)

Anyone who is a fan of high school movies will love this modern take on classics from the 80s.  The details of “Easy A” are revealed from a web-cam retrospective of high school student Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone), a slightly eccentric nobody in the school who, like most high school students, just wants to be noticed.

Olive inadvertently tells her best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) that over the weekend she lost her virginity (or played her v-card as Rhiannon puts it) to a non-existent local college student. The details of the fictitious tryst are overheard by the school’s ultra-conservative and bible-toting Marianne (Amanda Bynes), who quickly spreads the story throughout the entire school.

Wanting to impress Rhiannon with her sex story, Olive decides not to come clean since at this point the harmless rumor appears dead.  Olive doesn’t mind being thought of as a floozy, as long as she’s thought of. But lies travel fast (Olive calls it accelerated velocity of terminological inexactitude), especially in a high school.

When a thought-to-be-gay classmate Brandon (Cougar Towns all star Dan Byrd) confides that he can no longer take the harassment and physical abuse of the other students, a plan is hatched; Olive and Brandon will attend a party together and feign having a raucous dalliance in order for the other students to leave Brandon alone.

Other unpopular students become aware of the ruse and begin offering gifts and money to Olive in order to tell people that they have also had sex with her. Olive begins mockingly wearing the letter ‘A’ on her clothes (in reference to the character Hester Prynne from “The Scarlet Letter” which her English class is currently reading), and her standing as the class trollop continues to grow. But as Olive tries to start a relationship with a long-time crush Todd (Penn Badgley) she must deal with Marianne, and her own reputation, which is quickly becoming toxic.

Over the top high school clichés are abound, from the stereotypical cliques to a school with seemingly a million students (all about 30 year’s old and most being flawless models).  The party where Olive and Brandon “hook up” takes place at a classmates mansion, complete with waterslide, tiki bar, and a grotto so sensual it would make Hugh Hefner blush (you’ll wonder where these parties were when you were in school).  The cast is rounded out nicely by veteran comedic actors; Olive’s favorite teacher Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church) and his wife the Guidance Counselor (“Friends” alum Lisa Kudrow) and Olive’s her super-cool and hysterical parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson).

“Easy A” is 90 minutes of non-stop laughing and an instant DVD purchase. You will want to watch it again and again.  It gets an A…easily…

– by Matt Christopher