Easy A

Is it possible to fall in love with Ojai? After watching Easy A, I kind of did. I even fell in love with Olive’s family. Of course these people aren’t real, but I really liked Olive’s zany parents. Played hysterically by Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) and Patricia Clarkson (Cairo Time), I wanted to hang out at their house and have dinner with them. Their offbeat parenting style and unconditional love gives Olive the confidence to act freely and make some tough decisions. I really liked her and this film.
 
Emma Stone (Zombieland) plays Olive. Olive is the kind of well-adjusted student that never gets in trouble. So in other words, in high school she is invisible. When her best friend invites her to go camping, Olive makes an excuse to get out of spending the weekend with her strange hippy parents. But when her friend presses her for details, she says that she has a date. Her next lie is that the boy is a college freshman and then she is accused of sleeping with him which she doesn’t deny it. In a matter of seconds her fabricated sex-life is all over school and now people are looking at her in a new way. At first she’s kind of enjoying the attention so she lets it go, but lies have a way of snowballing. Soon her phantom sex-life becomes a farce.
 
Olive’s next lie involves a gay friend of hers. Brandon, Dan Byrd (Cougar Town) is tired of being a punching bag at school so he convinces Olive to fake sleeping with him. If his tormentors thought he was straight, they might leave him alone so Olive once again pretends to have sex. After a staged tryst at a party, Brandon is now a respected hetero and Olive is the school tramp. This event looses Olive her best friend and the scorn of the school’s celibacy club. It’s leader Marianne, Amanda Bynes (She’s The Man) becomes her new persecutor so now Olive is mad and decides to embrace her wanton identity. She begins to wear a scarlet letter on all her clothes, a nod to the book they are reading in class, and she also dresses accordingly. Olive is now infamous and her notoriety takes unexpected turns. She starts having fake sex with other boys longing to change their image. In her mind it is all about perception and since she is still a virgin, it doesn’t count.
 
When the adults at school get involved, Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends), the consequences of her actions start to get serious. Especially when she gets the attention of an old crush. Penn Bagely (The Stepfather) plays Todd and he may be her only friend left. Her lie is now causing damage to other people and she wants it to stop. It is time to clean up this mess before she loses Todd too.
 
Easy A has a fun farcical tone with witty banter, pop culture references and an irreverent air. This mythical version of Ojai presents a town in a bubble protected by its beautiful hills and isolating it from the rest of the jaded world. Only in Ojai could Prince Charming come riding up on a lawn mover. I loved this film and had a lot of fun with it. If you enjoyed Fired Up, Mean Girls, or even Amanda Byne’s, She’s The Man, you’ll probably enjoy this film too. Go Woodchucks! Sorry Blue Devils.

Rating: First Run A teenage sex farce that started with a lie