I had no idea. Best thing I’ve seen along these lines since “10 Things I Hate About You.” What the hell business does a teen comedy have being this funny? And smart? It makes adult films look juvenile! Ok, the parents of the lead strike me as a bit of a Mary Jane … ultra understanding and funny. But there are so many nice touches in the film, and it does such a great job with ringing the changes on the them of white lies. I highly recommend it to those Dopers who enjoy a good laugh.
And while I’m on the topic, well, actually I guess I’m not, but what the fuck was so wrong with Russell Crowe’s version of “Robin Hood.” I really liked Kate Beckinsdale’s version of Maid Marion … gritty and tough. Lots of nice fights too. OK, John Hurt looked like he was fighting sleep in every scene, since when is this news? I thought the prince was a convincing impulsive idiot. And I had no idea that Robin Hood wrote the Magna Carta. So, educational too. And the World War II style landing craft used by the French … wow. Even more educational. I had thought they were a modern innovation. I bet the ancient astronauts designed them.
Count me among the number who declare Easy A to be much more enjoyable than it has any right to be. I picked it up because I assumed it would be the sort of vapid teen comedy that my wife seems to enjoy, and surprised myself by being very entertained by it from start to finish.
I’m an old dude who felt it was worth a watch for the John Hughes references alone, but it’s a smashing success in its own right, and I hope that it holds up until my own daughter is old enough to watch it.
I loved Easy A as well. Lots of great performances - Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow. And I absolutely love Emma Stone.
I think I had higher hopes for the film than I should have. By the time they hit the scenes with Lisa Kudrow, I realized that I had no investment in the film and just turned it off.
[nitpick]
Cate Blanchett was Maid Marion.
William Hurt was in it, not John.
[/nitpick]
Easy A was one of my favourite films from last year (not that I saw enough to have any credible favourites list, but still). I didn’t think it was as good as Mean Girls, which it got a lot of comparisons to, but still really, really great.
My eyes were glued to the lead girl. She is just magnetic. I was disappointed that the the movie didn’t end with the radical feminist sexually liberated message that I thought it was going for, but I didn’t let that spoil my fun. There were so many funny moments.
My wife and I saw this on a Sunday when we had nothing else to do and decided to go to the dollar theater. It was her turn to pick a movie and I went in thinking it was just going to be some teenybopper romcom in the vein of Miley Cyrus.
But I ended up laughing my ass off. Emma Stone, and really the entire supporting cast were great. I think it was going for some cheap shots in the portrayal of the Christian girl, but other than that it was a superb film. Both wicked and hilarious.
Well Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsdale, same difference really.
Now William Hurt and John Hurt are different, I’ll grant you that. William Hurt is the one who always looks like he’s half asleep, and John Hurt is the one whose eyes creep me out … so sunken into those huge pouches you wonder how he can see. I can’t stand to see him onscreen.
But … OTHER THAN THAT … I think you’ll agree I got all the casting right.
I agree, Emma Stone sorta made the movie, carried the narrative very well. I think it was the script that was at the heart of the movie’s success, all kinds of smart and funny going on there, but Stone and friends brought it to life very nicely indeed. I think the actress who played the Christian girl did a great job with her part … she handled the comedy aspects of her role very well, wasn’t just "the villainess.’
I mostly really enjoyed it to, but had difficulty with my suspension of disbelief. In what world is having sex so rumor inspiring? I just couldn’t believe that the original gossip would have been such a big deal. Or has high school changed that much since the late 80s?
I graduated in 2004 and sex was a big big deal. I had quite the reputation because I did have sex and wasn’t at all ashamed about it- I had one boyfriend for 3 years and only had sex with him, but you’d have thought I was a hooker or something by the way people talked. I now work with high school students and I can assure you that the #1 life killing thing to them would be if someone started a rumor that they were not only having sex, but having multiple sex partners. Even a chunk of the boys will flip out if anyone suggests they are having sex.
When I was in 8th grade (early 90s) there was a rumor that this girl gave another student a blowjob, and she was teased about it, but I seem to recall she took the teasing in good humor (though she never did confirm whether or not it was true).
But by high school, especially 11th or 12th grade (which is about the level I assume the students in the film were), I doubt most people would have cared. And I grew up in a pretty conservative part of the Midwest too.
Now, if a girl was going around selling herself, like Emma Stone was pretending to do in the movie, that would have been a different matter.
I just took the exaggerated response to her activities as part of the theme of the movie, after all, it’s a take on “The Scarlet Letter.”
It didn’t get the attention that Easy A received, but Will Gluck’s first movie, Fired Up!, was also a cut above the stereotypical teen comedy.
Woah, this is totally different from my experience of HS in Toronto in the 1980s. There were many students having sex then (for better or worse, I was not one of 'em - not for lack of trying; I came close a couple of times, but did not-for reasons that were no doubt hilarious in hindsight! :D), and no-one thought it was a big a deal unless it was in some socially-disapproved form.
I didn’t expect anything good out of this movie and only saw it because it happened to be the first feature at the 2-feature drive-in I went to. I was definitely surprised. Very smart comedy that just happened to take place in a high-school setting.
Yeah I really liked her. She reminded me of Lindsey Lohan before the drugs. Extremely literate, but real. And hot as hell.
:boggle: Well, they’re both female humans, I’ll give you that.
I like both of them, but, IMO, they’re hardly interchangeable. Cate is an attractive, serious actress. Kate is a hottie. 
I was also pleasantly surprised by this movie. The Parents seemed almost alien in their awesomeness but Emma Stone definitely pulled the movie off. Very good performance!