EASY A

EASY A (PG-13 for plenty of profanity, suggested sex, a prurient attitude):  Bert V. Royal's script leans heavily on the message (but not the story) of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," in which a woman guilty of adultery is forced to wear a scarlet "A" as proof of her sinfulness.  But this is a parody of sorts, leaning most heavily on the willingness of a prurient public to suspect sins where sins don't actually exist.  Olive (Emma Stone in her best role by far) is just another cipher at her high school (hard to believe, actually, that a girl so pretty, so confident, and so bright would be ignored by the entire student body).  When she confides a lie, that she's in a sexual situation, to her bumptious, sexy chum, the ball starts rolling.  Olive enjoys it, first pretending she's having wildly abandoned sex with a young fellow suspected (correctly) of being homosexual so he could rebuild his character among the students, the rumors fly.  Others get into the act of pretending their loss of innocence with her, and she enjoys the attention - wears exaggerated sexy clothes & makeup, sews a red "A" on the front, until finds the ultimate result is not pleasing.

OK so far, though it seems unbelievable that even a girl as clever as Olive can get away with anything so ridiculously presented that people will believe.  Problems arise. 

Sure, the dialog is witty, her easy-going parents totally accept her actions which apparently parallel theirs at her age, but then the introduction of a real sex scandal between the principal & the school's guidance counselor - later complicated when a venereal disease is given to one of the Jesus freaks - sours the fun.  There's also the fact that everything is far too exaggerated - the aforementioned sex scene with the homosexual, the domineering attitude of the Jesus freaks with their public demonstrations, etc. - diminish discordantly the main fun in the pointing up of the gleeful willingness of the general body of people to accept what Olive  has so blatantly demonstrated.  In that respect, a similar situation in "Clueless," which nicely paralleled Jane Austin's "Emma," had it down pat. 

Emma Stone is every bit as good in her role as Alicia Silverstone was in "Clueless," as she rises high above the very stupidity of the people who surround her (aided & abetted, I'm sure by Will Gluck's heavy-handed direction).  What begins as an exceptionally clever lesson turns by film's end to be more falsely titillating, ultimately dampening the main idea - final message & all - included.  (Grade: B-)