| Easy A | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Will Gluck |
| Written by | Bert V. Royal |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Michael Grady |
| Edited by | Susan Littenberg |
| Music by | Brad Segal |
Production companies | Screen Gems Olive Bridge Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 92 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million[2] |
| Box office | $75 million[3] |
Easy A (stylized aseasy A) is a 2010 Americanteenromanticcomedy film directed byWill Gluck, written byBert V. Royal, starringEmma Stone,Penn Badgley,Amanda Bynes,Thomas Haden Church,Patricia Clarkson,Cam Gigandet,Lisa Kudrow,Malcolm McDowell,Aly Michalka, andStanley Tucci. The screenplay was partially inspired by the 1850 novelThe Scarlet Letter byNathaniel Hawthorne.
Shot atScreen Gems studios and inOjai, California, 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 aGolden Globe nomination forBest Actress in a Comedy or Musical, while the movie won theCritics' Choice Award forBest Comedy. The film is ranked as number 14 onEntertainment Weekly's 2021 list of the Best High School Movies.[4]Easy A is also Bynes’ last appearance in a motion picture film to date.
The story is narrated by Olive Penderghast, a seventeen-year-old high school student living inOjai, California, speaking into her webcam.
Desperate to avoid going on a camping trip with her best friend Rhiannon Abernathy and Rhiannon's hippie parents, Olive dishonestly claims she is going on a date with a college boy that weekend; truthfully, she stays home all weekend listening toNatasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine" from amusical greeting card her grandmother sent her. Pressed by Rhiannon the following Monday, Olive eventually folds and lies about having lost her virginity to the boy she ostensibly went out with. Prudish, devout Christian student Marianne Bryant overhears their conversation, and Olive's story 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 classmate Brandon, a gay student who is bullied for his sexual orientation. She agrees topretend to have sex with him at a party so people will believe he is straight.
After a fight with Rhiannon, Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new reputation as a "tramp," beginning to dress more provocatively and stitching a red "A" onto her clothes, inspired byHester Prynne fromNathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novelThe Scarlet Letter, which she has been reading in English class. Boys who have had no previous luck with girls beg Olive to increase their popularity by letting them claim they have had sex with her, which she does in exchange for gift cards to various stores. Marianne's boyfriend Micah contractschlamydia from sleeping with the school guidance counselor Mrs. Griffith, but claims Olive was the one who gave it to him. Because Mrs. Griffith's husband, Mr. Griffith, is Olive's favorite teacher, she accepts the blame to spare their marriage.
The church youth group, now including Rhiannon, begins harassing Olive in an attempt to get her to drop out of school. She goes on a date with Rhiannon's crush Anson, which ends with her storming off angrily after he tries bribing her to actually have sex with him and not just claim that she did.
Olive reconnects with Todd, her childhood crush and the school mascot, who says he does not believe the rumors because she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. She decides to ask everyone she lied for to admit the truth, but nobody is willing to relinquish their newfound reputations. When Mrs. Griffith also refuses to admit to her affair with Micah, Olive threatens to expose her, but Mrs. Griffith says no one would believe her. Olive immediately informs Mr. Griffith, who subsequently separates from his wife.
After talking with her mother, Olive comes up with a plan – she performs a song-and-dance number at a pep rally to draw people's attention and tells them to watch her webcast that night, promising an onlinesex show with Todd. In reality, the webcast has served as theframe story for the film. As Olive is concluding her webcast, Todd comes by her house riding a lawn mower. She signs off by saying that she may lose her virginity to him eventually, but declares it "nobody's goddamn business". Olive texts Rhiannon and apologizes for lying to her. She goes outside to meet Todd, and they kiss before riding off on the lawn mower.
ScreenwriterBert V. Royal claims to have written the entire screenplay, except for the last ten pages, in five days.[5] 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. BesidesThe Scarlet Letter, which was the source material forEasy A, Royal wanted to adaptCyrano de Bergerac andThe Mystery of Edwin Drood.[5]Natasha Bedingfield's song "Pocketful of Sunshine", which becomes arunning joke in the film, was not in Royal's original script. He envisioned "Olive", a track fromKen Nordine's 1966 albumColors, to play during Olive's weekend montage (which introduces the song).[5] DirectorWill Gluck's favorite film isFerris Bueller's Day Off and has multiple homages to it in the film (Olive's shower Mohawk, "never had one lesson"), among many otherJohn Hughes references.[6] According to Royal, although the word "fuck" appeared 47 times in the original draft, which was written as an R-rated comedy, all occurrences were cut from the final film. Gluck shot other versions of many scenes, with or without coarse language.[5] Although the film was cut down for a wider audience, it still obtained a 15 rating in theUnited Kingdom.[7]
Gluck credits Stone with improvising the line about being a "Gossip Girl in theSweet Valley ofTraveling Pants".[8] The entire film was shot inOjai, California in the summer of 2009, usingPanavision'sGenesis and laterfilmized. 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 isNordhoff High School, and the end credits are filmed on Fordyce Road, both located in Ojai, California.
The soundtrack was released byMadison Gate Records on September 14, 2010, and is available viaiTunes. It features tracks fromJessie J,Lenka,Natasha Bedingfield,Kardinal Offishall, andCary Brothers. Other songs in the film but not on the soundtrack album are fromOneRepublic,Angus & Julia Stone,The Dollyrots,Death Cab for Cutie, andThe Pussycat Dolls.[9]
| Easy A (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | September 14, 2010 |
| Genre | Pop,hip hop,rock,punk rock,new wave |
| Label | Madison Gate Records |
| No. | Title | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Change of Seasons" | Sweet Thing | 3:46 |
| 2. | "Bad Before Good" | Day One | 3:50 |
| 3. | "Trouble Is a Friend" | Lenka | 3:37 |
| 4. | "If You Were Here" | Cary Brothers | 3:49 |
| 5. | "15 Minutes" | The Yeah You's | 3:30 |
| 6. | "Cupid Shoot Me" | Remi Nicole | 3:43 |
| 7. | "Satellite" | Kram | 3:06 |
| 8. | "Don't You (Forget About Me)" | AM | 4:23 |
| 9. | "We Go Together" | I Heart Homework | 3:17 |
| 10. | "Numba 1 (Tide Is High)" | Kardinal Offishall | 3:42 |
| 11. | "Perfect Picture" | Carlos Bertonatti | 3:06 |
| 12. | "The Wolf" | Miniature Tigers | 2:35 |
| 13. | "Sexy Silk" | Jessie J | 2:43 |
| 14. | "When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade" | The Boy Least Likely To | 3:42 |
| 15. | "Pocketful of Sunshine" | Natasha Bedingfield | 3:24 |
| 16. | "Don't You (Forget About Me)" | Simple Minds | 4:23 |
Easy A had itsworld premiere at the2010 Toronto International Film Festival.[10]
Easy A was released onDVD andBlu-ray Disc on December 21, 2010.[11] The DVD features a gag reel,Emma Stone's audition footage, anaudio commentary with director Gluck and Stone, and previews. Blu-ray exclusive bonus features include: The Making ofEasy A, The School of Pop Culture: Movies of the '80s, Vocabulary of Hilarity and a trivia track.
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 behindThe 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.[2]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.[3]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes,Easy A has an approval rating of 85% based on 193 reviews, with anaverage rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "It owes a huge debt to older (and better) teen comedies, butEasy A proves a smart, witty showcase for its irresistibly charming star, Emma Stone."[12] Another review aggregator,Metacritic, assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave it an average grade of A− on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Chicago Sun-Times film criticRoger Ebert 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."[15]Richard Corliss ofTime magazine named Emma Stone's performance one of the ten best film performances of 2010: "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."[16] John Griffiths fromUs Weekly gave it two and a half stars out of four: "With her husky voice and fiery hair, Stone is spectacular, echoing earlyLindsay Lohan...The story is thin, and the laughs meager."[17]
The Independent praisedEasy A for redefining tropes of teen films, particularly sex comedies.[18] In a retrospective piece forThe Washington Post, Anying Guo discussed its influence, pointing out how it subverted "sex-crazed tropes into a sharp, thoughtful film" by satirizing teens' obsession with virginity itself.[19] 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."[19]
| Ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artios Awards[20] | Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Feature – Studio or Independent Comedy | Lisa Miller Katz | Nominated |
| The Comedy Awards | Best Comedy Film | Easy A | Nominated |
| Best Comedy Actress | Emma Stone | Nominated | |
| Best Comedy Director | Will Gluck | Nominated | |
| Critics' Choice Awards | Best Comedy Film | Easy A | Won |
| Dorian Awards | Unsung Film of the Year | Won | |
| EDA Awards | Actress Defying Age and Ageism | Patricia Clarkson | Nominated |
| Eddie Awards | Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical | Susan Littenberg | Nominated |
| Empire Awards | Best Comedy | Easy A | Nominated |
| GLAAD Media Awards | Outstanding Film – Wide Release | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Emma Stone | Nominated |
| Golden Schmoes Awards | Best Comedy of the Year | Easy A | Nominated |
| Biggest Surprise of the Year | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress of the Year | Emma Stone | Nominated | |
| Breakthrough Performance of the Year | Nominated | ||
| MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance[21] | Nominated | |
| Best Comedic Performance[22] | Won | ||
| Best Line from a Movie[23] | Emma Stone andAmanda Bynes | Nominated | |
| People's Choice Awards | Favorite Comedy Movie | Easy A | Nominated |
| Russian National Movie Awards | Best Foreign Comedy Movie | Nominated | |
| St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards | Best Comedy | Nominated | |
| Special Merit(for best scene, cinematic technique or other memorable aspect or moment) | For theJohn Hughes tribute near the beginning. | Nominated | |
| Teen Choice Awards[24][25] | Choice Movie: Romantic Comedy | Easy A | Won |
| Choice Movie Actor: Romantic Comedy | Penn Badgley | Nominated | |
| Choice Movie Actress: Romantic Comedy | Emma Stone | Won | |
| Choice Movie: Female Scene Stealer | Aly Michalka | Nominated |
It was announced on June 20, 2019, that a spin-off film ofEasy A is in development, which will be written and directed by Bert V. Royal.[26] Further confirmation of the film came in 2021, withAly 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."[27]
