Because she’s a spunky, pretty redhead in a high school comedy, Emma’s breakthrough performance in Easy A is naturally being compared to Lindsay’s own star-making turn in Mean Girls — but she’s already twice the actress that Lindsay ever was!
I’ve got some serious advice for you, HollywoodLifers, so listen closely. GO SEE EASY A NOW. You won’t regret it. In fact, you’ll probably thank me for pushing you into the movie theatre on a beautiful fall day as soon as you realize how utterly fantastic breakout star Emma Stone is; she is THE reason to see this film and, in my opinion, Hollywood’s newest “It” girl!
Before I continue, I have to clear one thing: Emma is no Lindsay Lohan. Yes, both girls are redheaded, freckled, funny and have starred in high school comedies, but the similarities end there. Sure, Lindsay — who was arrested for the umpteenth time today after failing yet another drug test — did have talent once upon a time, but she couldn’t carry the 2004 comedy Mean Girls the way that Emma, 21, rules Easy A. Tina Fey wrote Mean Girls‘ hilarious script and a slew of Saturday Night Live stars like Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler and Tim Meadows helped to give her credibility as a comedienne. All she had to do as formerly home-schooled teenager Cady Heron was sit there, look pretty and say “shut up” — a lot.
But Emma is a different story entirely. Easy A is amazing BECAUSE of her, not because it’s such such a fabulous film by itself. She is equal parts funny, fabulous, touching and REAL — I got a sense that this whole semi-ridiculous story about a high school student that pretends to have sex with losers to amp their street cred (she’s like Rob Hood, if Robin was a fake de-virginizer) could have actually happened in reality. She brings real warmth and originality to Olive Penderghast, a senior who gets branded a slut after accidentally telling her best friend (Aly Michalka) she had lost her V card to a random guy. After being a branded a harlot by the student body, Olive has no problem helping gay schoolmate Brandon (Cougar Town‘s Dan Byrd) by pretending to deflower him. However, things soon escalate beyond her control and she realizes that, like the boy who cried wolf, no one believes her when she insists she isn’t the slew-bag she pretended to be…especially after she starts accepting gift cards from Home Depot for “services rendered.” To further alienate herself, she starts wearing corsets to school and sewing a red “A” on her clothing to ape The Scarlet Letter‘s wrongfully accused protagonist, Hester Prynne (not-so-coincidentally she happens to be ready Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s classic while her situation occurs).
The plot sounds kind of funny, but also kind of silly, right? Trust me, Emma makes the movie magic. But if you need other reasons to shell out the big bucks at the theatre this weekend, here they are!
- Easy A is one big, old love letters to John Hughes movies! If you love the ’80s, this is the film for you! There are nods to The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles and Say Anything – including Penn Badgley‘s adorable boombox-holding window scene (you’ll know what I mean when you see the film)!
- Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are LOL-funny as Olive’s parents, Dill and Rosemary. Seriously, you can only dream about having parents this cool and funny. Spoiler alert: Rosemary was a pretty loose lady in high school herself!
- Penn Badlgey. After years of appearing as annoying, arty Brooklynite Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl, only now do I get Penn’s sex appeal. He’s utterly endearing as Olive’s sweet, cool love interest, Woodchuck Todd, a guy who refuses there’s anything less than awesome about his dream girl. Plus, I kind of enjoyed the indignity of seeing him in a woodchuck costume instead of skinny jeans.
- Emma Stone, Emma Stone, Emma Stone. Sorry, guys, I couldn’t resist.
This film certainly isn’t as flawless as it’s star. Aly Michalka is deeply annoying as Olive’s BFF Rihannon and there was absolutely NO need to have such a dumb subplot about a religious freak (Amanda Bynes) who tries to save Olive from herself. Still, I’ll be seeing this movie again – and again and again and again. I literally can’t wait to see what the sensational Ms. Stone does next. Trust me, she’s no flash in the proverbial pan a la Lindsay Lohan.
fan