Before Emma Stone was winning Oscars for strange fare like “Poor Things” and movie musicals like “La La Land,” the versatile young actress cut her teeth on comedies. 2010’s “Easy A” is a great example of her comedic talent, and it’s a great movie in its own right.
In it, teenager Olive (Stone), an all-around “good” kid who doesn’t have a ton of wild experiences to her name, tells a little white lie about losing her virginity. Soon, the story spreads around school, and Olive must contend with her newfound persona, including its perks and pitfalls. The movie is a loose update of “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and does a rare onscreen job of examining the general shame shrouding teenage girls as they come into their own sexuality on screen.
While that examination isn’t exactly thorough or groundbreaking, the movie is really funny, and it stars Stanley Tucci as one of the best cinematic dads in the game. The movie holds an 85% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The late and legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “[‘Easy A’ is] a funny, engaging comedy that takes the familiar but underrated Emma Stone and makes her, I believe, a star. Until actors are matched to the right role, we can never quite see them clearly.” Everyone sees Emma Stone clearly now, and you can see her in “Easy A” on Netflix in July.
