Easy A

Easy A
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Will Gluck
Written by	Bert V. Royal
Produced by	Will Gluck Zane Devine
Starring	Emma Stone Penn Badgley Amanda Bynes Thomas Haden Church Patricia Clarkson Cam Gigandet Lisa Kudrow Malcolm McDowell Alyson Michalka Stanley Tucci
Cinematography	Michael Grady
Edited by	Susan Littenberg
Music by	Brad Segal
Production company	Will Gluck Productions
Distributed by	Screen Gems
Release date	September 17, 2010 (2010-09-17)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$65,514,576

Easy A is a 2010 teen romantic comedy movie written by Bert V. Royal and directed by Will Gluck. Partially inspired by the novel The Scarlet Letter, the film was shot at Screen Gems studios and in Ojai, California. Screen Gems distributed with a release on September 17, 2010 (2010-09-17). It will come out on Blu-Ray & DVD Tuesday, December 21, 2010.

Plot

The film opens with Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) talking into a web cam about how her little white lie ballooned into an uncontrollable monster. She says she will explain her side, the true side of what occurred. She says that she was a nobody that no one noticed outside her best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka). Rhiannon wants to go camping with Olive but Olive lies and says she is going on a date. In reality, she just hangs around the house all weekend singing "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield.

The following Monday, pressed by Rhiannon, Olive lies about losing her virginity to a college guy. Marianne (Amanda Bynes), a very over the top portrayal of a Christian, overhears her telling the lie and soon it spreads like wildfire.

The school has a conservative teen church group run by Marianne who decides that Olive will be their next project. The group's harassment disguised as concern comes to head at an English class run by Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church). The class happens to be reading The Scarlet Letter, a novel about adultery and shame. When one of the girls from the church group makes a side comment at Olive, Olive shoots back one of her own. This gets her sent to the principal's office and Olive is given detention. It is there she sees her classmate Brandon walking out of the office with a bloodied nose.

Later at home, Olive is with her parents and her adopted brother. Her mother Rosemary (Patricia Clarkson) and father Dill (Stanley Tucci) are very liberal and supportive of their daughter and her choices. Brandon comes over later and propositions Olive; she'll pretend to sleep with him and make him popular, and she'll keep up her bad rep. She agrees and they pretend to have sex at a public party. Afterwards she bumps into an old crush Todd (Penn Badgley), who she almost kissed years ago but instead lied about it when he said he wasn't ready.

Now after apparently sleeping with two guys and the harassment starting to get to her, Olive decides to go with the flow. She begins to wear more provocative clothing and stitches a red 'A' to everything she wears. Boys begin to give her gift cards and money to say they've done sexual things with her to increase their own popularity, which only increases her rep.

However, things begin to go downhill quickly. Rhiannon, partly jealous of the attention Olive is getting, joins the church group protesting her. Olive is able to reconcile with Marianne but it is destroyed when Marianne's boyfriend Micah (Cam Gigandet) gets an STD and says Olive gave it to him.

Olive sees Mrs. Griffith (Lisa Kudrow) who is crying and confesses that she is the one who slept with Micah. Olive promises to take the blame to save Mrs. Griffith's job and marriage.

Olive becomes disillusioned with the fact that though everyone thinks she is sleeping around, no one will take the chance to actually date her. This changes when a boy comes up to her and asks her out. The date goes sour when Olive realizes the boy she's with is a long-standing crush of Rhiannon and he attempts to pay her off. Olive tries to recover and asks what they'll say happened but the boy thinks he will actually get sex and tries to force himself on her. She resists and he drives off. Todd, who works at the restaurant, sees her and offers to drive her home.

Todd tells her that he doesn't believe the rumor mill and thinks she's actually great. He remembers how cool she was about not kissing him years ago and wishes she actually was his first kiss (her friend Rhiannon was and he says she was terrible). Olive is touched but says she can't be with him until she sorts out her life.

Olive proceeds to go to the boys that propositioned her and tells them to fess up but most deny it, or in the case of Brandon who comes out to his parents, leave town altogether. When she goes to Mrs. Griffith to make her come clean, she refuses to and uses her authority as an adult to make it clear Olive won't be believed over her. Olive runs to Mr. Griffith and tells the truth but immediately regrets how she did it, realizing she just ruined a marriage.

To get everything finally in the open, she does a song and dance number at a pep rally and pretends that she will be doing a sex show via web cam with Todd. In actuality (as the whole movie has been an extended flashback) she confesses what she has done. She also makes up with Rhiannon, apologizing for lying. When she is finishing up, Todd comes by riding a lawnmower and tells her to come out. She closes her web cam confession saying she really likes Todd and maybe she will lose her virginity to him in the future but at the end of the day it is no one's business but her own. She leaves the house to kiss him and they ride off from the neighborhood on the lawnmower (a joke Olive made earlier on in the piece where she says "Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey").

Cast

• Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast
• Alyson Michalka as Rhiannon Abernathy
• Penn Badgley as Woodchuck Todd
• Amanda Bynes as Marianne Bryant
• Thomas Haden Church as Mr. Griffith
• Patricia Clarkson as Rosemary Penderghast
• Stanley Tucci as Dill Penderghast
• Cam Gigandet as Micah
• Lisa Kudrow as Mrs. Griffith
• Malcolm McDowell as Principal Gibbons
• Dan Byrd as Brandon
• Jake Sandvig as Anson
• Fred Armisen as Pastor

Development

Screenwriter Bert V. Royal claims to have written the entire screenplay, except for the last ten pages, in five days.

Royal's plan was to adapt three classic works into films and to set them at the same high school, so that some characters would appear in multiple films. Besides The Scarlet Letter, which was the source material for Easy A, Royal wanted to adapt Cyrano de Bergerac and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The song "Pocketful of Sunshine," which becomes a running joke in the film, was not in Royal's original script. He envisioned "Olive," a track from Ken Nordine's 1966 album Colors, to play during Olive's weekend montage (which introduces the song).

According to Royal, although the word "fuck" appeared 47 times in the original draft and was written as a R-rated comedy, all occurrences were cut from the final film. However, director Will Gluck shot two versions of many scenes, both with and without the coarser language. This "unrated" version of the movie may be available on the DVD. Although the film was cut down for a wider audience, the film still obtained a 15 rating in the United Kingdom.

It has been widely reported that director Will Gluck made substantial changes to the screenplay before shooting. The original script is available online and is vastly different from the final film.

The school used for the movie is Nordhoff High school, located in Ojai, California. The school has been renamed "Ojai North High school" for the movie.

Critical reception

The film has been well received by critics, with many praising Stone's performance. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 157 reviews, with an average score of 7.1/10 and the general consensus being, "It owes a huge debt to older (and better) teen comedies, but Easy A proves a smart, witty showcase for its irresistibly charming star, Emma Stone." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 34 reviews from mainstream critics.

In his review, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three and a half out of four stars, writing, "Easy A offers an intriguing middle ground to the absolute of sexual abstinence: Don't sleep with anybody, but say you did. It's a funny, engaging comedy that takes the familiar but underrated Emma Stone and makes her, I believe, a star."

Release

Box office

Easy A was released on September 17, 2010 and grossed $6,787,163 on its opening day and $17,734,040 in its opening weekend, placing second behind The Town on both figures. As of October 21, 2010 the film has grossed a total of $55,111,229 in the United States and Canada plus $5,005,709 in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $60,116,938.

Home Media

Easy A will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 21, 2010.

Soundtrack

The Soundtrack was released on the 14th September 2010, and is now available on iTunes and on disc.

External links

• Official website
• Easy A at IMDb
• Easy A at AllMovie
• Easy A at Rotten Tomatoes
• Easy A at Box Office Mojo