Easy A

A star is born in Emma Stone, who plays the lead role in Will Gluck and Bert V. Royal’s light, breezy teen-sex comedy Easy A. Using Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as a jumping-off point, not as the basis for a modern update, they tell the story of a high school girl who becomes immersed in a scandal when she starts a false rumour about her sexual promiscuity. The writing and directing are almost flippantly fanciful, which should undercut the sharp, genuine themes about high schoolers' obsessions, not only with sex but with identity and reputation. But Stone and the rest of the first-rate cast handle with aplomb the stylized dialogue, which is not as aggressively mannered and self-satisfied as Diablo Cody’s in Juno (2007) but is in the same ballpark. Stone had been featured in many popular pictures prior to this one—Superbad (2007), The House Bunny (2008), and Zombieland (2009)—but here her star power becomes undeniable.

The movie touches on a number of timely and timeless teenage issues without really digging too deeply into them. It also relies heavily on nostalgia for '80s teen movies in ways that feel a little bit lazy. However, these references to superior films from two decades earlier, also add pointed commentary as to the coarsening tone and embracing of playful vulgarity (but in quasi-refined ways) in teen coming-of-age movies, teen romcoms, and teen-sex comedies over the past twenty years.

Gluck and Royal offer an alternative to the binary nature of films where "losing the cherry" is the ultimate objective and films that promote the conservative values of abstinence. By creating a character who remains virginal but adopts the persona of "a slut," the picture is able to comment on long-standing attitudes about sex with subtlety and nuance. The flashy, quick-paced style of the film is neither subtle nor nuanced—the adult actors forgo creating characters in favour of presenting idolized, soft-authority figures who are lots of fun without being completely out of touch—so it's impressive that the movie leaves you actually thinking about its thesis as opposed to just humming along with the soundtrack. Of course—you will be humming along with this soundtrack because, like all great teen movies, the picture is chock-full of rockin' tunes.

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