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.

Threesome

Threesome
April 8, 1994
TriStar
Comedy, Drama, Romance
DVD
B+

This movie's racy title may be misleading.  Yes, it's about sex, including sex within and among three close but very different college roommates (guys named Eddy and Stuart, a girl named Alex), but it's also about love and friendship, and how those get mixed up with sex and with each other.  Appropriately enough, I first saw it the Fall after its initial release, on cable, in a dorm room.  In fact, I (by then a divorced 26-year-old) and two of the friends I watched it with went on to experience a more innocent version of the entanglements in the film.  So I can swear to you that the view of hijinks and pizza and sexual confusion is incredibly real.  (The "It's three in the morning!" "Shut up!" exchange is what would've occurred if anyone in our dormitory actually cared about us playing pranks on each other in the middle of the night.)  That the movie is set to a late '80s/ early '90s soundtrack (I lit up when Jellyfish's "My Best Friend" first played, and I still smile now), only further captures that time.

Even if you've never lived in a dorm, I think you'll be entertained.  The dialogue is witty in a college way.  That is, sometimes crude and sometimes pseudo-intellectual, but almost always funny.  There is also true poignancy in Eddy's dilemma.  (Josh Charles is perfect.)  He is a virgin but mostly identifies as gay, and yet he loves both his roommates.  (The word "bisexual" is never uttered by the way, which is a sign of the times.)  The romance is odd because I honestly don't like either Stuart or Alex (Stephen Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle) most of the time, and I don't desperately want any pair or triad of them to form.  But each time I watch the movie, I like seeing how it plays out.  I have watched the movie with a roomful of bisexuals by the way, and everyone fell silent during the ultimate sex/ love scene.  (It's not very graphic, but it is very erotic, tactile.)

Considering the small cast and budget, it's a very impressive movie, even today.  The lack of a strong plot (especially the ending) and some confusion about when Alex might've gotten pregnant (we know she usually uses condoms with Stuart, but the lack of graphic detail makes it unclear if they were forgotten during the three-sided sex), as well as the aforementioned not exactly sympathetic characters (even Eddy is insensitive to one poor girl Stuart brings "home"), weaken the film for me.  Still, there are things I like noticing, like how Alex does variations on '50s "costumes" in her everyday wardrobe, including a housewife when Stuart's date comes over for dinner.  My recommendation, watch the movie, unless the basic premise offends you.

Ironically, considering the name SNAFU (which by the way is also realistic, as I had to provide my college with proof that I was female and not subject to the draft), Dick is played by an Alex, Alexis Arquette, who is now a trans woman.  While still identifying as male, Arquette appeared as George in The Wedding Singer.  Writer/director Fleming (whose DVD commentary is well worth listening to) would appear as a doctor in Easy A, which has its own unique take on adolescent sexuality.

This is by the way, the 200th comedy on my blog, although like many of them, it's not simply a comedy.