Las Vegas Weekly

‘Easy A’ tries too hard to be something it’s not

The Details

Easy A

Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley.

Directed by Will Gluck

Rated PG-13

Beyond the Weekly

Easy A

IMDb: Easy A

Rotten Tomatoes: Easy A

It would be nice to be able to put Easy A alongside such clever, subversive, subtly genius teen comedies as Clueless, Heathers and Mean Girls, because that’s clearly where the filmmakers think it belongs. But despite its efforts to transcend the genre, Easy A is a little too conventional and a little too unfocused to achieve what it sets out for. Emma Stone plays high-school outcast Olive, who goes from nonentity to the talk of the school when rumors start to spread about her (fabricated) promiscuity. She runs with it, only to discover the consequences of perpetuating a lie. Stone is confident and funny, and the supporting cast mostly measures up, but director Will Gluck strains for social relevance and laid-back cool, and the movie’s view of high school too often rings false. Like its main character, Easy A is trying too hard to seem like something it’s not.