Easy A (2010)

Emma Stone

© Screen Gems

A savvy high school student could have a field day unpacking all the references, far beyond The Scarlet Letter, in Easy A. A savvier women's studies student could do well to examine why all those references, from Olive's Ray-Bans on down, are to male characters.

This is not a knock against Emma Stone's breakout performance, which is the very definition of charming. In fact, it's next to impossible to watch the movie and not spend the next 20 minutes talking about how damn charming Stone is. Then you move on to discuss what delightfully loopy parents Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci made ("I want them to be my parents!" you'll shout). Maybe you'll wonder if Penn Badgley can ever really shed Dan Humphrey (short answer: outlook good). But after awhile, all you're left with, "Wait, is she Ferris Buller?" and also, "Is selling the idea of sex any better than selling sex?"

Now, it's hard to begrudge her the former since Ferris Buller is the Platonic ideal of high school-hood. But the latter is a sticky, dirty, uncomfortable place that the movie refuses to go, just like it will nod in the general direction of a double standard for boys and girls in high school re: having sex and then refuses to follow that thought through to the end.

Someday, someday a movie might address those ideas (I hope, I pray, I  . . . write?), but I guess I can settle for this delightful, if slight, romp for now. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go sing "Pocket Full of Sunshine" a million times. B+  

P.S. Someone who looks like Stone would so get noticed in high school.