Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Love is Old, Love is New

Easy A (2010)
directed by Will Gluck
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at Loews Waterfront 22

Easy A felt like a Jean Arthur movie - and not just because I wanted it to - except that Jean Arthur was too old to play a high schooler, and went for the career girl angle instead. Emma Stone doesn’t exactly look like a teenager, but teenagers are expected to be more adult about sex these days. And that’s the point, more or less: that they’re not ready to talk about sex the way adults do. But they try, and they do it viciously, and a lot of kids get hurt.

I was afraid that Easy A would pull its punches, because Judd Apatow has made me gun shy about the lessons that romantic comedies are supposed to teach. But no. In the end, Woodchuck Todd tells Olive that he knows the rumors aren’t true, and since she isn’t really the town bicycle, he wants to date her. But there are women in the world who like to sleep around, and they should turn out okay, too. In the Ojai of Easy A, they do; Olive's mother slept with anyone and everyone back when, and grew up to be the accepting, kind, and warm-hearted woman we want adults to be.

Not that adults are reliable. Not that there wasn't a little Election in Lisa Kudrow's high-school counselor, or that Easy A isn't Mean Girls meets Saved!. But I like that none of the expected resolutions happen, not with Olive's best friend or Olive's tormentor, not between Olive and Mr. Griffith or Mr. Griffith and his wife. Easy A not only acknowledges gay teenagers, but puts the gay teenager who first approaches Olive for help in a sexual interracial gay relationship at the end of the film. They don't kiss, but Olive doesn't kiss anyone either.

The rest is Southern California country roads, more than a few dickish high school classmates, and an unwavering distrust of religious counsel. For all my ham-handedness in reviewing the thing, the cast and crew pass it off as a breezy lark. You can't always count on the people you want to, and counting on yourself isn't necessarily enough to get you through. You do your best.