(M) Directed by Will Gluck
The Breakfast Club (directed by John Hughes) was a defining film in the 1980s. It was about five teenagers in an American high school who had to spend a Saturday together in detention and during this time, they realised that they were all more than their respective stereotypes. It became the marker for coming-of-age films and is continually alluded to in Will Gluck’s film which plays with the Jezebel stereotype. Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) is bright, attractive and virginal (like most American high school students!) and she pretends to have sex with her gay best friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) in order to boost his straight credos. Rumours quickly spread and she becomes the ‘school slut’.
Rather than defend herself, and because she just happens to be reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in English, Olive decides to live up to her new status by wearing increasingly provocative clothes to school. As the number of students that Olive is supposed to have slept with grows, the ultra-religious Bible club don’t know whether to get her expelled or to pray for her. Meanwhile, the guidance officer (Lisa Kudrow) hands out useless information and Olive’s first love ‘Woodchuck’ Todd (Penn Badgley) keeps popping up to help her out and show off his washboard abs.
Easy A is a fairly light-hearted comedy that celebrates diversity even if it doesn’t really delve too far into the conditions that continue to perpetuate stereotyping and it’s associated bullying. Instead, it undermines the bigoted characters that all come crashing down in a quagmire of scandal. The script is very clever and humour is generated by revelations of double standards; the ultra-conservatism of the young people being contrasting to those of Olive’s sexual revolution parents (Patricia Clarkson and a tongue-in-cheek Stanley Tucci), and continual references to The Breakfast Club.
Lezly Herbert
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