Just got finished watching Easy A and I had no choice but to immediately watch Starman. There’s a big prize in store for anyone who can tell me why.
This was a movie that appeared to have nothing I was looking for. The only thing that got my attention was all the praise it was getting from my learned colleagues. Let’s say to all of you guys: thanks for affirming my faith in your judgement. Easy A makes no secret about it’s affiliation with schmaltzy John Hughes-esque teen rom-coms, but it is certainly of this era in all it’s cynicism, sarcasm and whatever other -ism has been coined so far this century. In this very loose adaptation of The Scarlet Letter (not the one starring Demi Moore), Emma Stone plays Olive Penderghast, an average teenage girl whose lie about losing her virginity snowballs into a web of deceit designed in the hopes of making everybody happy. Suddenly a lie about another sexual tryst with a supposedly gay classmate in order to help him blend in with his classmates, turns into many lies that threaten to both destroy marriages and help nerds finally get dates.
…while Mean Girls tended towards a message revolving around simply being nicer to each other, Easy A took things a few steps further and addressed issues like truth, morality, sexuality, and self respect.
What struck me most about the film, and it didnt really strike me until everything was wrapping up how much more Easy A managed to accomplish than Mean Girls despite working with pretty much the same tools. All the adults were goofy caricatures, the cliques (or more precisely the religious clique) had a portentous air about them, the heroine was disarming and likeable and guided us through the story with some witty observational humor. But while Mean Girls tended towards a message revolving around simply being nicer to each other, Easy A took things a few steps further and addressed issues like truth, morality, sexuality, and self respect. Now, I might be heaping more onto this film than is merited, but allow me to say that while Mean Girls devoted all of its energy to being funny, Easy A is no doubt funny as well, but diverted some of it’s comedic verve to digging a little deeper and staying a little darker.
Emma Stone was fantastic and I remember shaking my fist in the direction of the Hollywood Foreign Press for passing her over for a Golden Globe nomination while simultaneously being super excited about her presence in the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. But didn’t Amanda Bynes retire or something? Somebody should look into a lawsuit for false representation – while she didn’t make anything worse, I think somebody else in her role could have made things a whole lot better.
Easy A was a multi-layered, diversely sourced piece of comedy and a worthy addition to the canon of teen rom-coms – a tribute to the films that have come before it, and a great flick in its own right.
I see where you are coming from when you compare this to Mean Girls and maybe it’s true that it had slightly more of a meaningful message embedded into its story but that only diluted the effectiveness of the movie as a comedy. I still consider Mean Girl a much superior movie that is better written and just damn funnier!
Perhaps if we compared it to another high school movie that loosely adapted some classic literature, like 10 Things I Hate About You? Easy A’s got the edge in that respect. As for comedy, which is the real reason why people are watching movies like this, Mean Girls has clearly got the chops. Tina Fey remains super clever when it comes to making people laugh. So maybe it’s on those special subtextual steroids… metaphoric, not anabolic steroids.
The Starman reference is to the song Symphonies by Dan
Black, where he uses the main theme from Starman (quite nicely
too). This piece is not on the soundtrack though…
Well, I’ll be damned! Somebody actually figured it out! It took me almost the entire film to realize where I recognized that tune from. Well done!
I checked though, it’s on the version of the OST that I found. Cool music video for it too on YouTube.
I’ll email you about this prize. Didn’t figure on someone all the way on the other side of the world figuring it out. Seriously. Nicely done!
I’m on minute 19 of EASY A and immediately recognized the score from STARMAN. Googling “Easy A” and Starman brought me to you. Sadly I’m eight days behind Steve.
Welcome to the Film Cynics, Bill!
Consider yourself having a “No Prize” bestowed upon you, Bill! Good work! Seriously, that tune nagged at me for 3/4 of the film until it came to me… “Hmmm, it’s some kind of love story… from an older film… one I’ve seen recently…”
Wow. Watching Easy A right now and it immediately took me back to Jeff Bridges reviving a dead deer strapped to someone’s hood at a diner. Thanks for affirming this for me and my 14 year old daughter that has no clue why I’m so excited right now.
Welcome to the Film Cynics, RJ!
Isn’t it a totally unexpected blast from the past? And a total enhancement to your viewing experience? I wonder if it was done on purpose by the director or if the guy researching/compiling the soundtrack can take credit for it.