Easy A

As teen comedy send-ups of classic literature, Easy A is more of 10 Things I Hate About You (riffing on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew) than Clueless (the master class re-working of Jane Austin's Emma.)  A sunny, self aware trifling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Easy A also works as an amalgam of nearly every teen entry of the last twenty years, calling attention to it's very cliches, before honoring them with great reverence.  However, there's an ace in the hole, thanks to it's star, Emma Stone, who ponces and roars with terrific comedic timing and nimble charm.  If the films only works as a solid starring vehicle for a gifted young actress, there are worse cinematic crimes, and all the hogwash is easily and tastefully washed down thanks to the smart, husky voiced talent of an actress owning her silly film with such wit and aplomb.

Stone plays Olive, a high school wallflower who becomes a 21st century Hester Prynne when a little lie unleashes an scandalous reputation.  Soon the virginal Olive becomes a mark for unpopular, oppressed boys who happily fete her to service their own sad high school lives-- there's the gay boy, the fat kid, the "fill-in-the-blank" minority.  Olive obliges, loving the attention and notoriety at first.  She even wears her own "A" to school.  Things of course turn very sour, thanks to a very real high school scandal.  The cluttered Easy A spouts out screen time to an over-zealous Christian clique (headed by queen bee Amanda Bynes), which is not nearly as pointed or well-observed as Saved! (2004) was, as well as other teen comedy mainstays-- kooky parents (serviced and salvaged by the acting gods of Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci), and the dreamboat suitor-to-be (Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley.)  Thankfully these predictable, duller moments are set with cinematic quotation marks, and Stone happily and blessedly spins her expository dialogue with such unexpected humor and peppery off-kilter charm.

The one part of Easy A that's a uneasy, and more my speed involves the guidance counselor (played by Lisa Kudrow) playing an uneasy game of her own, of which Olive (being the dutiful servant to the oppressed and unhappy) gets the rap for.  It's here where I felt the film could potentially be heading into the pantheon of it's ilk, but director Will Gluck (Fired Up) and writer Bert V. Royal either lost their nerve or interest in that film, deciding it best to keep the sun-sunshiny 80s pastiche going full steam.  Which is a shame considering Easy A, could have really used the whole pious Christian\The Scarlet Letter act for a stronger, more effective beat than it is.  Surely Kudrow would have been game-- in her brief appearance, she keeps her offbeat, beautifully observed absurdest humor (a nice counterpoint to Stone's) flowing strong.  I would have liked to have seen that film a lot more.

That being said, it's a pleasant, diverting movie.  And if one can get over various movie touchstones, I see Easy A being a solid TBS flick for decades.  So if one can get over a few obvious issues, for instance, the unfortunate filmic tactic of portraying beautiful, young women as homely, and the sight of 20-somethings playing high school students (I'll give Easy A a free pass on that one, for reasons I'll refrain from mentioning), the silver lining is the experience of watching a young, talented actress making her mark in a flattering and fittingly commercial way.  After years of solid supporting work is similar material (Superbad, Zombieland, The House Bunny), I humbly request that casting directors across this great land make proper use of Ms. Stone in the coming years, for I see a mature, game, seriously funny future.  However, Easy A is more of B-.

Revisiting "The Opposite of Sex"

It's been twelve years since the debut of Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex, perhaps the most scathing cinematic document of Ms. Christina Ricci.  For in 1998, Ricci was the undisputed indie queen, thanks primarily to her manipulative, bratty interpretation of Dede Truit.  It's still arguably her best role (in my mind, it's between this and Addams Family Values-- I do love me some of her Wednesday Addams.)  Ricci was also had The Ice Storm, Buffalo 66 and Pecker hit cinemas in a years time.  Thankfully the movie still holds up in that charmingly self aware verve that made it a minor success in 1998.  I simultaneously felt nostalgic and also a longing for Ricci to come back in a major role again soon.  Surely some smart filmmaker can come back to capitalize on her abundant gifts for screen bitchery.  Her Dede is a straight talker claiming on the very first bit of narration:

"I don't have a heart of gold, and I don't get one later"

 It's a perfect setup to a tale of scandal.  For those who haven't seen this joyously fun movie the gist is:  Dede is a trashy gal from Louisiana visits half brother Bill (Martin Donovan), steals his dim boyfriend Matt (Ivan Sergei), gets pregnant, and schemes, steals, and blackmails her way to support the mess she's gotten into.  Also in the mix are Bill's needy friend Lucia (Lisa Kudrow) and super-cop Carl (Lyle Lovett.)  For such a cynical movie however, it's an incredibly generous comedy, with ample opportunities for its talented cast to shine.  Aside from Ricci, Lisa Kudrow is delightful as the endlessly bitter Lucia.  One choice exchange:

Dede:  How does a woman get so bitter?
Lucia:  Observation.

The film surprisingly did pretty well come awards season.  Ricci received a Golden Globe nomination for actress in a comedy, Kudrow (right in the height of Friends popularity in a decidedly anti-Phoebe Buffay role) won best supporting actress from the NY Film Critics, and Roos received a WGA nomination for original screenplay.  Yet in a perfect world Ricci would have earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination and Roos a Screenplay nod-- not surprising that he didn't; the movie is quite vulgar and gay, and not the tragically historic sense that the Academy condones.  Roos returned a couple of years later with the similar poly-sexual dynamics with the ensemble comedy Happy Endings (featuring a killer performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal and another ace one from Kudrow), and a follow-up, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, featuring Natalie Portman and Kudrow again coming out hopefully very soon.