Fridae

Easy A lives up to its title in terms of being one of the most balanced and overwhelmingly entertaining comedies of the year. It is an intelligent high school sex comedy that relies as much on wordplay and situations as sight gags, that understands that underneath the bluster and chaos of high school life are frequently insecure, and even mostly normal, human beings trying to make their way in a complicated social hierarchy.

Played in a witty and sharp performance by Emma Stone, Olive Pendergast is an ordinary high school who has up to a point, led a normal, boring life. When she has to escape the hippy-dippy family of her ditzy best friend Rhi (Aly Michalka) she makes up a lie about a wild weekend of sex in which no position is left unspared in order to escape Rhi’s questioning and make Rhi envy her.

The ensuing hubbub makes her a minor celebrity around the school as her sexual exploits that get increasingly inflated and exaggerated finally raise her from being a nobody to being a somebody. Every nobody that yearns to be a somebody naturally comes looking for Olive. Not the least of which include those perpetual victims of high school; nerds, slobs and homosexuals, all of whom come looking for Olive as though claims to having slept with her would immediately mean their passport to social acceptance, and sometimes this even proves to be the truth. At the same time, the ire of the school’s Christian Coalition, led by Marianne (played by an appropriately hammy Amanda Bynes) decides to either save Olive’s soul...or get her out of school permanently. It is not long before Olive finds herself trapped in the situation of having to live up to her school image as the mega-slut...and borrowing a page from the American literary classic The Scarlet Letter, stars wearing a great big red “A” around school as part of her repertoire.

Easy A realizes that high school is equally about being infamous as well as being famous, and that all teenagers yearn in some way, to do or act out things that would make them appear “grown up” and fitting with the ideals that society enforces on its young. High schools are not dens of decadence as often seen in the frequently sensationalized visions of high school sex comedies by the likes of Judd Apatow, but nests of blowhards and pretenders to aforementioned infamy, which counts for both its most tragic and funny aspects. The very idea that many teenagers are pretty much conservative and idealistic when it comes to matters of love and romance, even if they may be seem ultra-libertine about sex, is not something frequently touched on by most high school sex comedies, and it is this insight that lends Easy A its uncommon wit.

This is also one of those teen comedies where the adult stars get equally to shine, sometimes stealing the show from right under the noses of the film’s teen stars by the amount of sheer fun they are having with their lines and their delivery. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson shine as Olive’s parents, who seem to have led far more vibrant and joyful sex lives as teenagers and remember it to this day, and Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow, as an English teacher and a school counsellor in a marriage in which all is not what it seems, are both equally sad and funny as the revelations pile on. Kudrow in particular is a joy to watch, her timing and intelligence bringing to mind her Friends days. For them sexual dynamics are more than a game of pretence, but rather something very real and very complex.

In a sea of gradually coarsening American comedies, Easy A stands out for being intelligent, funny and genuinely witty because of its thorough understanding and sympathy for its characters and situations. Good tragedy is hard to do, good comedy is even harder. This is a very good comedy that’s done its homework. Easy A easily makes the grade.