Michelle and I were lucky enough to be sent to yet another free screening last week, this time thanks to the people at the contagious network.
I was actually looking forward to this movie, having read about it on slashfilm and having seen the trailer. The main actress was in Superbad and Zombieland, both of which I really enjoyed. It certainly had all the right ingredients, and ultimately it didn’t disappoint.
I knew going in that the story was more or less a modernisation of The Scarlet Letter… and that is pretty much what I got. It reminded me a lot of 10 Things I Hate About You (a modernisation of Taming of the Shrew), which is actually a good thing! Easy A doesn’t take itself too seriously and has a lot of fun along the way. The parents in the film probably elicit the biggest laughs (especially the scenes with their adopted son) but the rest of the cast each have their moments.
I was suprised at how much the film lampooned evangelistic religion. They skewer it pretty damned hard, and so when the main character heads to a church for advice toward the end it seemed a little weird. The confessional scene was a bit cringe-worthy and painfully obvious to everyone except the dude sitting in front of me who shouted “whoah, no way!” when the twist was revealed.
Other than that, the movie hits all the right teen-high-school-romance-movie notes, including a dance number. The movie was so clinical and tight that there really isn’t much to say against it, other than that all the actors looked about 10 years older than the characters they were playing!
Unlike Superbad, I did walk out of the theatre wondering if I was getting too old for these movies. Sure, it was fun, but the world they are describing is getting more and more distant to me. I am at that age now where I tend to only remember the good times, and teenage angst is rapidly becoming foreign to me. Even so, I was entertained. Any sub-25 humanoids should definitely see it. Everyone else? Maybe catch it on DVD.