September 15, 2010 11:00AM EDT
Best in Show: Emma Stone
As a self-fashioned modern-day Hester Prynne, Emma Stone is honor roll material in the new high school comedy, Easy A.
Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles. Winona Ryder in Heathers. Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Reese Witherspoon in Election. Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. Ellen Page in Juno. You're already smiling reading the list. Is there anything quite as sparkly as a breakthrough actress in a high school comedy? This weekend a shimmering new student transfers in to Movie High.
In Easy A, a new comedy from first time feature screenwriter Bert V. Royal and Fired Up! director Will Gluck, good student Olive (Emma Stone) shares a first person account of how she pretended to be promiscuous for the notoriety and novelty of it. In so doing, she rapidly goes from anonymous loner to the center of a social hurricane. Because this is a movie, she also just happens to be reading The Scarlet Letter in English class while all of this transpires. Olive begins to see herself as a modern day Hester Prynne, complete with pious religious types trying to ostracize her.
Like a lot of star vehicles, Easy A doesn't worry too much about its frequently raggedy plot threads and big supporting cast; it has a dazzling centerpiece to fawn over. Whether Stone is strutting down the hallways in suggestive clothing, cheekily self-embroidered with the letter “A”, or using her formidable wit to navigate hostile conversations, you never want to look away. She’s a natural comedienne and entertainer.
Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci play Olive’s parents, and their rapport with Stone is a huge asset to the film. It’s the only time in a recent high school comedy, outside of possibly Juno, where you can see that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. To be descended from Clarkson and Tucci, you’d better be both funny and smart. Stone never shortshrifts Olive’s innate intelligence. Even in this student’s silliest or most awkward moments, Stone is consistently showing us a girl who is testing out a newly constructed persona rather than truly becoming it. There’s always a telling sliver of clinical remove as we observe her observing her own behavior. Late in the film as she says goodbye to her dream date (Penn Badgley) after a particularly eventful night, he teases her with a quip, “I don’t overanalyze situations the way you’re about to.” The joke is particular funny because, like him, we already know this about her.
This breakthrough turn comes at a perfect time for the young star. Since her debut in Superbad (2007), Emma Stone has been rising up through the Young Hollywood ranks. Sure, maybe you have to suspend your disbelief to buy someone with this much personality as a social nobody, but she’s great fun to watch as she becomes somebody. Easy A puts Emma Stone in easy reach of top grades. Whether or not she’s accepted into the aforementioned honor roll from classic high school cinema, only time will tell. But here’s to the undeniable charisma of true confidence; she plays this role like she knows she belongs there.
Click the poster to find movie times near you for Easy A:
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