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Movie Reviews: All Recent, Some Decent
I had high hopes for this one—I can be a big fan of high school movies when they feel realistic and are well done. But because I’ve seen those movies and enjoyed them, this one felt like multiple retreads. The brash-outsider-takes-on-the-high-school-establishment trope was done better in Mean Girls. The satire of self-righteous high school Christianity was done better in Saved!. The portrayal of authority figures (teachers, parents) who have got it less together than the youths was done better in the highly underrated Orange County.
At least none of those movies are mentioned deliberately. There’s sort of a metacommentary when Emma Stone’s character describes all of her favorite moments from classic teen pics (The Breakfast Club, Say Anything, Can’t Buy Me Love) and then some of them are later (deliberately) recreated by another character. Now throw in the deliberate loose retelling of The Scarlet Letter. There is an obscure line between charming homage and further grinding down well-worn tropes, and Easy A lumbers right over that line. It’s a Frankenmovie.
Also troubling me: Emma Stone’s character dresses like a Hollywood starlet (perfect hair, makeup, skinny jeans, tank tops, dangly earrings) before she dresses like a whore – yet we’re supposed to believe that this girl is a nobody (boo hoo!) at her high school? They couldn’t have at least put a pair of glasses on her? A ponytail? A baggy sweatshirt? Maybe everyone at this school is just living in some bizarro world, because the most popular girl in school is apparently the mildly greasy and bloated-looking Amanda Bynes?
Any good points? Well, Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Stone’s laid-back parents are hi-larious. It’s nice to see Lisa Kudrow taking on work, too. The scenery is gorgeous (the movie is set and filmed in artsy, winey Ojai, California). But ultimately a disappointment, only because I’d heard good things about it. Watch any of the other teen movies I’ve mentioned already, because they are all legitimately good and entertaining in ways that Easy A is not, with the possible exception of Can’t Buy Me Love, which I hate, but that may be more about my aversion to all things Dempsey.
Ahead: the indie, the thriller, the Oscar bait, and the one with the girl who really likes cows
Cultural Civilian 