''Easy A'' (stylized as ''easy A'') is a 2010 American
teen romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
comedy film directed by
Will Gluck, written by
Bert V. Royal
Bert V. Royal Jr. (born October 14, 1977) is an American screenwriter, playwright, and former casting director. He is best known as the writer of the play '' Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead'', which premiered Off-Broadway in 20 ...
, starring
Emma Stone
Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she ...
,
Stanley Tucci,
Patricia Clarkson,
Thomas Haden Church,
Dan Byrd,
Amanda Bynes,
Penn Badgley,
Cam Gigandet
Cameron Joslin Gigandet (; born August 16, 1982) is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on ''The O.C.'' and appearances in feature films ''Twilight'', ''Pandorum'', ''Never Back Down'', '' Burlesque'', ''Easy A'', ''Priest'' ...
,
Lisa Kudrow,
Aly Michalka, and
Malcolm McDowell. The screenplay was partially inspired by the 1850 novel ''
The Scarlet Letter'' by
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Shot at
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...
studios and in
Ojai, California
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...
, the film was released on September 17, 2010. The film received positive reviews with high praise for Stone's performance, and was a major financial success, grossing $75 million worldwide against a budget of $8 million. Stone received a
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
nomination for
Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, while the movie won the
Critics' Choice Award for
Best Comedy.
The film is ranked as number 14 on ''
Entertainment Weekly''
's 2021 list of the Best High School Movies.
Plot
The story is narrated by Olive Penderghast, a 17-year-old high school girl living in
Ojai, California
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...
, speaking into her webcam.
Olive lies to her best friend, Rhiannon Abernathy, about going on a date in order to get out of camping with Rhiannon's hippie parents. Instead, she hangs around the house all weekend listening to
Natasha Bedingfield's 2008 song "
Pocketful of Sunshine" from a
musical greeting card her grandmother sent her. The following Monday, Rhiannon presses Olive until she lies about losing her virginity to a college boy. Marianne Bryant, a devout Christian whom Olive considers to be prudish, overhears her telling the lie and it soon spreads throughout the school. The school's church group, run by Marianne, decides to "save" Olive from her supposed promiscuity. Olive confides the truth to her friend Brandon, who is bullied by other students for being
gay. Brandon asks Olive to pretend to have sex with him at a party so the other students will believe he is straight, to which she agrees.
After a fight with Rhiannon over her new reputation as a "dirty skank", Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new image as the school tramp, wearing more provocative clothing and stitching a red "A" onto her clothing, inspired by
Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel ''The Scarlet Letter''. She is portrayed as a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors. The character has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in ...
from
Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel ''
The Scarlet Letter''. Boys who have had no previous luck with girls beg Olive to increase their popularity by saying they have had sex with her, which she does in exchange for gift cards to various stores. Things get worse when Micah, Marianne's boyfriend, contracts
chlamydia from sleeping with Mrs. Griffith, the school guidance counselor, and blames Olive. As Mrs. Griffith's husband, Mr. Griffith, is Olive's favorite teacher, she accepts the blame to spare their marriage.
The church youth group, which now includes Rhiannon, begins harassing Olive in an attempt to get her to drop out of school. Olive gets asked out on a date by Anson, Rhiannon's crush, which ends badly when Anson tries to bribe Olive to actually have sex with him and not just pretend that she did. Olive later reconnects with Todd, her childhood crush and the school mascot, who tells her he does not believe the rumors because she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive decides to ask everyone she lied for to help her by telling everyone the truth, but nobody is willing to relinquish their newfound popularity. When Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth, Olive threatens to expose her affair, but Mrs. Griffith says no one would believe her. Out of spite, Olive immediately tells Mr. Griffith, who subsequently separates from his wife.
After talking with her open-minded mother, Olive comes up with a plan - she does a song-and-dance number at a school pep rally to get people's attention and tells them to watch her webcast later that night, promising an online
sex show with Todd when in reality, it is the webcast that has served as the narrative device for the film. As she is finishing up her webcast, Todd comes by her house riding a lawn mower. She signs off by saying that she may lose her virginity to Todd sooner or later, but declares that "it is nobody's goddamn business." Olive texts Rhiannon and apologizes for lying to her. She goes outside to meet Todd and the two share a kiss before riding off on the lawn mower.
Cast
*
Emma Stone
Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she ...
as Olive Penderghast
**
Juliette Goglia as young Olive
*
Penn Badgley as "Woodchuck" Todd
**
Braeden Lemasters as young Todd
*
Amanda Bynes as Marianne Bryant
*
Dan Byrd as Brandon
*
Aly Michalka as Rhiannon Abernathy
*
Thomas Haden Church as Mr. Griffith
*
Lisa Kudrow as Mrs. Griffith
*
Patricia Clarkson as Rosemary Penderghast
*
Stanley Tucci as Dill Penderghast
*
Cam Gigandet
Cameron Joslin Gigandet (; born August 16, 1982) is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on ''The O.C.'' and appearances in feature films ''Twilight'', ''Pandorum'', ''Never Back Down'', '' Burlesque'', ''Easy A'', ''Priest'' ...
as Micah
*
Malcolm McDowell as Principal Gibbons
*
Mahaley Patel
Mahaley Patel (née Hessam; born September 30, 1987) is an American actress best known for appearances in the films '' Easy A'', '' The DUFF'', and '' Our Show''.
Personal life
Patel was born in Atlanta, Georgia, as Mahaley Hessam. Her parent ...
as Nina Howell
*
Jake Sandvig as Anson
* Bryce Clyde Jenkins as Chip Penderghast
*
Johanna Braddy as Melody Bostic
*
Fred Armisen as Pastor Bryant
*
Stacey Travis
Stacey Elaine Travis (born August 29, 1964) is an American actress. She has appeared in films '' Hardware'' (1990), '' The Super'' (1991), '' Only the Strong'' (1993), ''Traffic'' (2000), ''Bandits'' (2001) and ''Intolerable Cruelty'' (2003).
L ...
as Mrs. Bryant
*
Max Crumm as Pontius
*
Yoshi Sudarso
Yoshua "Yoshi" Sudarso (born April 12, 1989) is an Indonesian-American actor.
Biography
Sudarso was born in Surabaya, Indonesia to Indonesian parents of Chinese and Japanese descent. His family moved to Cerritos, California, when he was nine ...
as Eric Ling
*
Lalaine as Gossipy Girl
Production
Development
Screenwriter
Bert V. Royal
Bert V. Royal Jr. (born October 14, 1977) is an American screenwriter, playwright, and former casting director. He is best known as the writer of the play '' Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead'', which premiered Off-Broadway in 20 ...
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''.
Natasha Bedingfield's 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).
Director
Will Gluck's favorite film is ''
Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' and has multiple homages to it in the film (Olive's shower Mohawk, "never had one lesson"), among many other
John Hughes references. According to Royal, although the word "
fuck
''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...
" appeared 47 times in the original draft, which was written as an R-rated comedy, all occurrences were cut from the final film. However, Gluck shot two versions of many scenes, both with and without the coarser language.
Although the film was cut down for a wider audience, the film still obtained a 15 rating in the
United Kingdom.
Filming
Gluck credits Stone with improvising the line about being a "
Gossip Girl in the
Sweet Valley of
Traveling Pants".
The entire film was shot in
Ojai, California
Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...
, using
Panavision's
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...
and later
filmized. Not a single film set was used; even the houses in the film belong to Ojai residents. The school used as "Ojai North High School" in the film is
Nordhoff High School
Nordhoff High School (NHS), originally Nordhoff Union High School, is a public high school in Ojai, California that serves the Ojai Valley. The school, established in 1910, is part of the Ojai Unified School District.
History
The original Nordh ...
, and the end credits are filmed on Fordyce Road, both located in Ojai, California.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released by
Madison Gate Records on September 14, 2010, and is available via
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
. It features tracks from
Jessie J
Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind''. She studied ...
,
Lenka,
Natasha Bedingfield,
Kardinal Offishall, and
Cary Brothers
Cary Brothers (born 1974) is an American indie rock singer-songwriter originally from Nashville, Tennessee, United States. After moving to Los Angeles and becoming a regular performer at the influential Hotel Cafe venue, Brothers first gained ...
. Other songs in the film but not on the soundtrack album are from
OneRepublic
OneRepublic is an American pop rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002. It consists of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder, lead guitarist and violist Zach Filkins, rhythm guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellis ...
,
Angus & Julia Stone
Angus & Julia Stone are an Australian folk and indie pop group, formed in 2006 by brother and sister Angus and Julia Stone. Angus & Julia Stone have released five studio albums: ''A Book Like This'' (2007), '' Down the Way'' (2010), '' Angus ...
,
The Dollyrots,
Death Cab for Cutie, and
The Pussycat Dolls.
Release
''Easy A'' had its
world premiere at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented '' Score: A Hockey Musical'', a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. '' La ...
.
[
]
Home media
''Easy A'' was released on
DVD and
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
on December 21, 2010.
The DVD features a gag reel,
Emma Stone
Emily Jean Stone (born November 6, 1988), known professionally as Emma Stone, is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2017, she ...
's audition footage, an
audio commentary with director Gluck and Stone, and previews. Blu-ray exclusive bonus features include: The Making of ''Easy A'', The School of Pop Culture: Movies of the '80s, Vocabulary of Hilarity and a trivia track.
Reception
Box office
The film opened 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, and already making back more than double the film's slim $8 million budget. This was in line with expectations from Sony of an opening weekend take of around $15 million.
The film grossed a total of $58,401,464 in the United States and Canada plus $16,624,752 in international markets for a worldwide total of $75,026,216, earning its budget back more than nine times, making it a huge financial success.
Critical response
On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 189 reviews, with an
average rating of 7.08/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "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 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
''
Chicago Sun-Times'' film critic
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave 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."
Richard Corliss of ''
Time'' magazine named Emma Stone's performance one of the ten best film performances of 2010, writing that "Stone lends winning maturity and a gift for making sassy dialogue sound natural. This 22-year-old is an actress-personality — a star — around whom Hollywood could build some pretty good movies". John Griffiths from ''
Us Weekly'' gave the film two and a half stars out of four; he praised Stone, stating that "With her husky voice and fiery hair, Stone is spectacular, echoing early
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera '' An ...
", but also added that "The story is thin, and the laughs meager".
The film has been praised for redefining tropes of teen films, particularly those of the sex comedy genre. In a retrospective piece for ''
The Washington Post'', Anying Guo discussed the film's influence, pointing out the film "
ubvertedsex-crazed tropes into a sharp, thoughtful film" by satirizing teens' obsession with virginity itself.
Guo added, "Packed with references to “''
Say Anything''” and other ’80s homages, the film felt refreshing against the steady churn of bildungsroman narratives that often centered on young men".
Accolades
Sequel/Spin-off
It was announced on June 20, 2019, that a spinoff film of ''Easy A'' is in development, which will be written and directed by Bert V. Royal. Further confirmation of the film came in 2021, with
Aly Michalka stating "There are talks that there might be a sequel. That actually is semi real. ... It would be kind of like a new retelling but you'd see some of the characters from the original come back into the story."
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Easy A
2010 films
2010 independent films
2010 romantic comedy-drama films
2010s American films
2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s feminist films
2010s high school films
2010s teen comedy-drama films
2010s teen romance films
American feminist comedy films
American high school films
American independent films
American romantic comedy-drama films
American teen comedy-drama films
American teen romance films
Films about school bullying
Films about virginity
Films based on The Scarlet Letter
Films directed by Will Gluck
Films set in California
Films shot in California
Madison Gate Records soundtracks
Ojai, California
Screen Gems films