Easy A

Easy A
September 17, 2010
Screen Gems etc.
Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Like Going the Distance, this is better than it should be, although not as good as that, and no, it does not earn an A (easy or otherwise) from me.  I put it on a level with Juno, which it resembles in some ways, in that the main character is a witty, cynical, but good-hearted teenage girl with awesome parents who support her, even as her sexuality makes her an outcast at school.  In Juno's case, it's because she's pregnant, while here Olive (played by Emma Stone) is both victim and manipulator of rumors about her promiscuity.  The title and much of the plot are inspired by The Scarlet Letter, but this is not based on a book per se.  The movie is at least as much about the effect of social media, from texting to videoblogs, giving a very modern touch to a movie that in some ways could've made back in the mid-'60s, or at least in the '80s that Olive idealizes in a different way than Gen-Yers Erin and Garrett do in Distance.  Like Juno, she looks up to a time she wasn't even alive in.

On the one hand, it seems a bit much to believe that an entire high school (even in a small town) could get spun up about one girl losing her virginity to a college guy.  On the other, it's not like slut-shaming isn't alive and well, in the real and the cyber world.  I like how the movie argues that Olive's sexual experience is nobody's business, although of course this is ironic since we're meant to care about it as the audience.  Olive is a "good girl" in the sense that she's seventeen and never been grounded or sent to the principal's office, until the events of this story.

Her parents aren't as gruff as Juno's, but instead, as played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, they are whimsical and playful, although still attentive and caring.  They're named Dill and Rosemary, and her kid brother is named Chip, so the whole family is "edible."  (I've heard that there's another brother, named Kale, off at college, and it's his nonexistent friend that Olive supposedly loses her "V-card" to.)

The other stand-outs in the cast are Thomas Haden Church as Mr. Griffith (his delivery on "Don't forget, tomorrow is Earth Day" understandably kept breaking Stone up) and Dan Byrd as Brandon, the gay friend whose plot thread is both poignant and funny.  But it's mostly Stone's movie, and she carries it well.  I don't feel like the movie is well structured, and some things, like Lisa Kudrow's betrayal, just seem to happen so that the movie can keep moving.  But overall, entertaining enough.  The "romance" tag by the way comes from her involvement with "Woodchuck Todd," played by Penn Badgley.

Andrew Fleming, writer/director of Threesome, has a bit role as a Doctor.  Yolanda Snowball, who was Mrs. Yeager in The Brady Bunch Movie, is a Receptionist here.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
April 25, 1997
Buena Vista
Comedy
VHS
B+

While this has its flaws (borderline racism and homophobia, a very meandering plot), this remains a delightful, joyous film, in the tradition of Earth Girls Are Easy and Clueless.  That is, there's sort of a deeper message beyond the bright colors, bouncy soundtrack (here heavy on early to mid '80s pop), and "dumb" heroines.  But mostly the movie is a lot of fun with many quotable lines.  The leads are a I-can't-place-it-but-I-love-it accented Mira Sorvino and a Phoebe-era Lisa Kudrow.  Whether they're mocking Pretty Women or claiming that they invented Post-its (Sorvino as Romy does something amazing to her O's, while Kudrow as Michele reels off a formula for glue), they are very funny.  (And the "I've got a phone" brag by Romy, a flip-phone no less, has only gotten funnier with time.)

Also, their best friendship is touching and believable.  It's sort of a sismance, a female version of a bromance, something not seen enough in movies.  Yes, they're both given romantic prospects--Michele's is a still nerdy but now rich Alan Cumming--but the focus is on their relationship.  (They consider becoming lesbians if they're still single in a couple years, although Romy is disgusted by the idea of having sex with a woman.)  It is entirely fitting that when Cumming (as Sandy Frink) asks Michele to dance, they have to include Romy.  (It's to "Time After Time" and is worth the price of admission/rental in itself.)  It's quite clear that Romy and Michele are each other's favorite person in the world.

But the real gem here is a gaspingly hilarious Janeane Garofalo as the hostile but vulnerable Heather Mooney.  It's a very different role than Abby in The Truth About Cats & Dogs, much more out there, but in its own way just as lovable.  Michele has a line late in the film, "For me, it's like I've just given birth to my own baby girl, except she's like a big giant girl who smokes and says 'shit' a lot.*  You know?"  Meanwhile, Heather decides to buy a non-black dress that "exacerbates the genetic betrayal that is my legacy."  That there was never a 20th-year reunion sequel is one of the minor crimes of Hollywood.

17-year-old William R. Phillips, who's Man at Diner here, would still look young enough to play a student in Kudrow's Mean Girls seven years later.


*Yes, there is profanity in a Buena Vista release.  Also a lot of cleavage.  I'm sure Uncle Walt was rolling over in his grave.