EASY A: EASY GRADE TO GIVE THIS FILM

The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated.

Finally comes a smart film that does not talk down to its audience, although many of them are of high school age, but rather treats them with the respect that many of them, if not most of them deserve. A cross between Mean Girls and Saved, this film is definitely not your average boy meets girl boy loses girl boy in girl get together at the end and everybody lives happily ever after. Like 10 Things I Hate about You, the underlying tone of the script follows the story of the Scarlet Letter; "A is for Awesome". Emma Stone is Olive, our heroine who is smart, well spoken and has cutting sense of humor. Her parents are both supportive equally as entertaining (Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci). One of the things that makes this film most refreshing the things that you think will happen don't, and the things that you don't expect to happen do. Olive's parents and their quirky sense of humor is definitely part of that. "Any friend of Olive's is a friend of my daughter." Rarely do I mention a writer, but Burt V. Royal deserves props for his work on this. This film was highly entertaining, so much so that I did have to watch it a second time. In a way, it is an homage to the films from John Hughes where teenagers are respected and not denigrated. I have a list of the films that I consider the best films of the year. Some are obvious, like Facebook, Inception, True Grit and the King's Speech. Easy A may not be an obvious choice, but it is my choice and I stand by it. Do not let this movie pass you by.