"Easy A" :

There are nights when I simply desire solitude. For whatever reason that evening I can't be troubled with the company of another person. Tonight was one of those nights. So instead I sought companionship in a movie. I found "Easy A". staring Emma Stone, and was left feeling satisfied albeit a little dirty for doing so.

Emma Stone (III) *apparently the third*

Very few Stars have the ability to draw me to a project inherently even ones I like. For example, George Cloony is staring in "The American" I have no plans on seeing it. But, (there is always an exception) Emma Stone drew me to this movie. Attractive, sassy, and headstrong she is my kind of girl, or I should say the character's she plays are.

I first met Miss Stone in one of my favorite movies of all time. Zombieland. Her character , a strong female with a tragic flaw, is well played, albeit formulaic.

Now for those of you who don't know, the movie is about a girl who takes payment for saying she had sex with various guys around high-school. This of-course backfires.

 I was unexpectedly delighted by the charm, and humor that the film portrayed. Now don't get me wrong, the film as much as it claims to be not just another highschool film is just that. Complete with eighties style music number. However this is intentional. The film attempts to turn the genre on its ear by styling itself as a farce on other high-school movies, but gets lost along the way and doesn't take the concept near far enough, and succumbs to the desire to fit in.

 From the start, the film departs from reality forging into the surreal universe of church groups in the extreme protesting a single person, and the main character selling the rumor of sexual favors for gift cards... and....oh... well I guess that is pretty real after all.

 The things that aren't real: her parents.  Accepting, modern and way, way to hip, they dont question their daughter walking around in lingerie tops and pretending to be a slut. They act more like a couple of her high-school pals. Her best friend who loves the idea of being a megaslut then turns around and joins a church group and the   few token black people are thrown into the mix, seemingly without reason.


The biggest problem with the movie, product placement; it  crops up everywhere.


In the course of the movie I was drawn out of the fake fantastical world of Ohai High (where the movie takes place)  when, Sony, Starbucks, Bath and Body works, Home Depot, Amazon  and Quizno's showed up out of the blue.  Not to mention that she gets paid in gift cards, with  the logos showing prominently, their names spoken almost at the audience instead of as dialog. I know the studios have to pay for the movies, but honestly there has to be a more subtle way of doing it. Studios, it doesn't make me want to go to any of these stores, it just makes suspending the disbelief all the harder.

Most interesting of these placements, or in this case non placement,  Red Lobster's. It seems something went wrong in the wheeling and dealing process and it looked as if Red Lobster  pulled out  last minute because in the movie they visit a Lobster Shack, that looks conspicuously like any of the many corporate seafood giant's stores.

Real High-school

All and All Easy A was fun. As much as I'd love to rip on this movie for being one dimensional, flat and having a predictable story, I can't. The humor is spot on, the main actress is enticing, and The movie teaches a good lesson about gossip, mainly "rumors suck".

Moreover, it like all the high-school movies before it,  it confirms just one thing, People in Hollywood have never spent a single day in a real high school.