Original, I know. But it's been a loooooong semester so far (plz ignore the fact that we're only four weeks in) and my brain is calcifying.
ANYWAY. Easy A really is quite great. Emma Stone is winsome and hysterically funny, Penn Badgley is much less annoying as Lobster/Woodchuck Todd than as Lonely Boy Dan Humphrey (which meant I could drool over observe his biceps in peace), and I wish Stanley Tucci were my awesome hot dad. Some dudes can really rock the bald thing. Amanda Bynes for some reason now looks a lot like Snooki, but her role in this consists mostly of aping Mandy Moore's unbeatable Hillary Faye, and that's ok with me (I have a weird love for Amanda Bynes. Not the gay kind, which will we get to in a minute). Once it's out on DVD I sense I'll be pairing Easy A with my other favorite Millennials-in-high-school film, Superbad, for nights when I need to laugh.
Of course, the film ostensibly deals with the topic of how girls are treated in high school and the larger society once they've "lost" their virginity (quotation marks used because I loathe that phrase). Emma Stone's character, Olive Penderghast, DOESN'T actually get it on during the course of the film, but since her peers think she does, the effect is basically the same. Overall I liked the way the film dealt with what girls--and women--go through once people realize they're sexual creatures; over-the-top in some cases, to be sure, but generally people ARE assholes about such things, so mostly realistic. However, the movie could've used somewhat of an attitude change about the act itself--there is no conversation in which anyone states that oh yeah, it's actually OKAY FOR GIRLS TO HAVE SEX. The closest the film comes, har har, is Olive's closing line, which states that when or if she has sex is "nobody's business". Which is true. But still skirts the ba-derk-a-derk that having sex is ok. The typical high school virginity comedy shows guys doing it and rainbows and puppies appear, and girls doing it and turning into sluts; Easy A doesn't exactly subvert this as much as revel in it--what Olive does for various boys turns them into studs and her into a whore (which she decides to embrace by wearing lingerie and a scarlet A patch). It's fun and funny and sad and relatable, but still doesn't quiiiiiite make it for social commentary.
I wanted that conversation to happen. I wanted so badly to hear Olive lay it out: WHY girls are turned into sluts when they have sex. The film just doesn't go there. But a failure, the film is not. For what it is--a teen sex comedy--it does far more than the average pretty-girl-meets-cute-boy fare.
...also I just love Emma Stone. She is pretty high on my Would-Go-Gay-For list. Girl has it all--looks, funny, everything--and the bulk of the awesome in this movie belongs to her. I laughed A LOT, which...I mean, I laugh pretty easily, but not always at movies that are supposed to be comedies. This one makes it so. Prepare to strap on your lollerskates.
In other entertainment news, you may be amused or horrified to learn that yesterday I watched all of the first season of Glee in preparation for tomorrow's premiere. My awesome BFF and fellow Glee marathoner DR SHE BLOGGO is doing a posting countdown, so jaunt over and check things out if you enjoy obsessiveness the way we do. :B
6 comments:
For some reason the text size starts out fine but then gets tiny at the end. O.o So I could only read half of this. But I'm excited for this movie! It looks hilarious.
Weird, it's still the same. Could be my browser (Chrome), although I haven't had this problem with it before.
Hmm. Are you using Google Chrome? I had someone else check it, and they said it looked fine in Firefox (which is what I use), but funky in Chrome.
I monkeyed with all the text, so hopefully it's better now. Hmmph, Blogger! :/
Yes it's all better! Very much appreciated. :D
And very good point about how if guys have sex, they're studs, and if girls have sex, they're whores. That always makes me SO angry, in real life as well as pop culture. Sigh. WHEN I AM QUEEN OF AMERICA.....
Oh good, text issues over. *shakes fist at Blogger*
Yes, I was sort of expecting at least a nod to the very-common concept of the sexual double standard. Then again, the more I think about this film, the more I think I need to see it again and evaluate whether there's a sneak attack going on. By no means does the film portray what Olive goes through as something right or good, but it doesn't really address WHY it's wrong, either.
Or does it? Yes, a second viewing is in order. More subtext parsing to come! :B
Silly Blogger!
I will definitely keep those things in mind when I see it! I love thought-provoking movies, especially when they're hilarious.
Post a Comment