But I love the cinema and will go whenever I have a chance, and this weekend I had two chances, so I took both. The first movie was The Social Network, which the blog prior to this one was about, the second, as I'm sure you realized, was Easy A.
Now, they are both good movies, but for radically different reasons. The Social Network is a serious biopic based on real events that will still be an amazing movie 10 years from now and will probably do well at the Academy Awards.
Easy A is a fun romp that requires little personal investment but elicits lots of laughs. While it is a comedy, it is a smart(er) comedy. Rather than depend on some idiot goofing off and acting like a mentally deficient child (coughadamsandlercoughwillferralcough), Easy A gets most of it's laughs from the script and delivery of the dialog. It's smart, satirical and over the top in just the right way. It pokes fun at itself for using cliches and conventions, and often points out how often these topics or actions have been employed (teacher who raps, how fast rumors spread, having a classic novel being studied in the english class that reflects the plot of the movie). The main character's (whose name escapes me) parents are completely inane but somehow still believable. It's also incredibly refreshing to see teenagers actually get along with their parents and go to them for help instead of treating them like the clue-less enemy.
Something else that I enjoyed about it though was it's philosophical and literary underpinnings. One major and obvious reference is to The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. This book helps to further the plot and act as a guide to the protagonists actions (which, as aforementioned, is a stereotype that the film-makers acknowledge and embrace). But beyond this, there were lines of dialog here and there that reference other classics of literature. At one point in a webcast the main character holds up a sign that says something to the effect of "Not with a bang, but a ..." I can't recall what word she substituted for 'whisper', but it was a clear reference to T.S. Elliot's masterful poem The Hollow Men. How, if at all, that poem is connected to Easy A isn't something that is immediately apparent to my 2AM mind, but I'm sure there are connections somewhere. There is also the line "rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated" a play on Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens snarky one liner "rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." Twain also gets a shout out for Huckleberry Finn, so that piece of referential continuity is nice.
There were two major issue's I had with the film, one being more important than the other. I'll start with the less serious one: Easy A continually relies on other classics to give itself wings. The movie ends with the main character and some Deus Ex Machina love interest riding away on a lawnmower to "Don't You Forget About Me" with their fists raised triumphantly in the air. While the John Hughes tribute was nice, it gets a little tiring when movies don't try to invent any new memorable moments, rather must recreate moments that are 30 years old. Second issue: mis-portrayal of Jesus' followers. While I'm used to seeing Christians completely misrepresented in movies, they usually refer to some sort of odd, New Age-ish 'god-entity' that is obviously nothing like the one in the Bible. In Easy A, the 'Christians' bring up Jesus and act like judgmental zealots in His name. Which is sad, because that's completely contrary to what Jesus was about.
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