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Easy A (2010) Gluck
Sinking like a Stone
When adapting a movie from source material, I think it's best to disguise that fact and let the audience (if they're clever enough) discover it's true origins. Unfortunately, the filmmakers state the story is loosely based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". Then immediately belittle the stature of the source material and their own film by telling the audience, not to bother reading the novel (the English Teacher admits it was difficult and obtuse, even for him) Instead they tell you to rent the movie adaptation---but not the Demi Moore version!
Weaknesses? Maybe because we've seen this particular teen universe reenacted several times before (and done way better) it feels kind of lacklustre. Bizarrely, the movie actually invites these comparisons by including several teen comedy clips from the 80's and reprising certain scenes. Also, the actors have spent a little too much time in VIP lounges to convincingly pull off fumbling teenagers. The inexperience of the Director shows, Gluck telegraphs way too many of the bumps; for instance, If you're paying attention, Olive's future boy toy is revealed within the first 20 minutes.
The Christian fundamentalist clique appears to have about 7 or 8 members in a class body of about 4 or 5 hundred---yet they impose their shining moral path on all the other students. The Alpha clique is not even including here, who may have contrasting ideas about promise ... scuity.
Amanda Bynes usually frames her face with long cascading hair; here, she wears it short which allows her ginormous cheeks to really stand out.
Improving this would have been simple. Instead of the story from antiquity, why not go with a real world media storm/tabloid scandal roughly parallelling Olive's story? Also, what's with the A? As epithets go, it pretty harmless outside of Bible study. Seriously, it's got too many syllables, and it's covered in cobwebs. Why not a hotter letter further down the alphabet that's got a little more snap? Why not sew the vernacular "S" on all her clothing?
As far as I can tell, the cyberspeed of the rumour mill is the actual theme of the film. Although, this is left totally unexplored. Also, this is the first of Emma Stone's several upcoming starring roles, however she didn't completely win me over with this one; she hasn't achieved that kind of movie star cachet, yet.
I did like two subtle touches. During a scene when Marianne (Amanda Bynes) gets the news about her straying boyfriend; the shot includes some seagulls on a PC screen in the foreground. When she screams, the birds take flight as if her scream had actually startled them. When the Mascot boy drives Olive home, the love theme from "Sixteen candles" is playing quietly in the background; when the conversation turns serious, he reaches out to the dashboard and either turns down the radio or pauses the CD. Cute, though I doubt any teen aged boy nowadays, who valued his manhood would be caught dead with that soundtrack on his person.
The adults in the film are in fine form; they all know how to craft a little screen presence to their characters. There's a few good one liners. A fictional movie world should always be out-sized and larger than life. Here, it fits in the palm of a hand, with tweety fingers.
Easy A ~ 5/10
Key words: Chick flick. Time waster. Lame Teen comedy. Quiznos Subs.
Easy A (2010) Gluck
Sinking like a Stone
When adapting a movie from source material, I think it's best to disguise that fact and let the audience (if they're clever enough) discover it's true origins. Unfortunately, the filmmakers state the story is loosely based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". Then immediately belittle the stature of the source material and their own film by telling the audience, not to bother reading the novel (the English Teacher admits it was difficult and obtuse, even for him) Instead they tell you to rent the movie adaptation---but not the Demi Moore version!
Weaknesses? Maybe because we've seen this particular teen universe reenacted several times before (and done way better) it feels kind of lacklustre. Bizarrely, the movie actually invites these comparisons by including several teen comedy clips from the 80's and reprising certain scenes. Also, the actors have spent a little too much time in VIP lounges to convincingly pull off fumbling teenagers. The inexperience of the Director shows, Gluck telegraphs way too many of the bumps; for instance, If you're paying attention, Olive's future boy toy is revealed within the first 20 minutes.
The Christian fundamentalist clique appears to have about 7 or 8 members in a class body of about 4 or 5 hundred---yet they impose their shining moral path on all the other students. The Alpha clique is not even including here, who may have contrasting ideas about promise ... scuity.
Amanda Bynes usually frames her face with long cascading hair; here, she wears it short which allows her ginormous cheeks to really stand out.
Improving this would have been simple. Instead of the story from antiquity, why not go with a real world media storm/tabloid scandal roughly parallelling Olive's story? Also, what's with the A? As epithets go, it pretty harmless outside of Bible study. Seriously, it's got too many syllables, and it's covered in cobwebs. Why not a hotter letter further down the alphabet that's got a little more snap? Why not sew the vernacular "S" on all her clothing?
As far as I can tell, the cyberspeed of the rumour mill is the actual theme of the film. Although, this is left totally unexplored. Also, this is the first of Emma Stone's several upcoming starring roles, however she didn't completely win me over with this one; she hasn't achieved that kind of movie star cachet, yet.
I did like two subtle touches. During a scene when Marianne (Amanda Bynes) gets the news about her straying boyfriend; the shot includes some seagulls on a PC screen in the foreground. When she screams, the birds take flight as if her scream had actually startled them. When the Mascot boy drives Olive home, the love theme from "Sixteen candles" is playing quietly in the background; when the conversation turns serious, he reaches out to the dashboard and either turns down the radio or pauses the CD. Cute, though I doubt any teen aged boy nowadays, who valued his manhood would be caught dead with that soundtrack on his person.
The adults in the film are in fine form; they all know how to craft a little screen presence to their characters. There's a few good one liners. A fictional movie world should always be out-sized and larger than life. Here, it fits in the palm of a hand, with tweety fingers.
Easy A ~ 5/10
Key words: Chick flick. Time waster. Lame Teen comedy. Quiznos Subs.