EASY A

Thankfully, the killer comedic moments in 'Easy A' are not hogged by Stone either. Tucci and Clarkson look like they're having the time of their lives as Olive's uber-cool parents Dill and Rosemary (foods are a running name inspiration in the Penderghast family), from having Olive turn her dinner into curse words ("Spell it with your peas! Do it!") to alluding to their - ahem - colourful sexual histories. The razor-sharp script by Broadway writer Bert V. Royal gives the film a high replay value, no doubt the reason why so many of the film's best one-liners have made their way into my regular pop-culture reference roster.

'Easy A' was released when I was 15, on the cusp of Olive's age and being seen by others as a young woman whether I was ready for it or not. Social media wasn't quite as prevalent back then, when revenge porn was still an extreme act and not something teenagers dealt with on a regular basis. Despite this, slut-shaming still existed, and it meant the world to me to see a female film character take control of the unwarranted reputation bestowed upon her. 'Easy A' is an incredibly loose adaptation of 'The Scarlet Letter', which Olive herself is studying in class, cheekily poking fun at the parallels between the story and her life - except where Hester Prynne actually committed the adulterous act she is accused of, Olive can't even get a kiss from her crush. "If Google Earth were a guy, he couldn't find me if I was dressed up as a 10-storey building," she declares in the film's opening scene. Branded with the same slutty label, Olive decides to make these parallels literal by stitching the same red felt "A" to her clothes as the one Hester is made to wear. Olive is smart enough to realise that if her peers are going to define her purely through her sexuality, she's going to make sure they do it on her own terms, simultaneously highlighting the rampant hypocrisy in how her sexual exploits are treated compared to that of her male classmates. After hilariously tricking an entire house party into thinking she has slept with gay friend Brandon (Dan Byrd, 'Sisters'), it's worth noting the difference between how the party accepts Brandon versus Olive. Brandon is celebrated by the jocks; Olive is given side glances and forced to endure crude jokes behind her back. 'Easy A' perfectly demonstrates how sex can be used as a weapon to get ahead socially for men, and Olive uses this knowledge to act in a way that makes high school an equal playing field.

Another element that 'Easy A' absolutely nails (hehe, get it?) is the near-constant tributes to iconic teen films of the 80s such as 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Sixteen Candles'. Like her audience, Olive has grown up idolising these films and is quick to point out the stark contrasts between the experiences of the teens in those films versus her own. Rather than just ripping off iconic moments from these films, however, 'Easy A' turns them into things Olive actually desires and seeks, so when these moments actually play out in her own story, they never feel derivative. Olive mentions wanting "a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason" in the same vein of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'; unbeknownst to her, she actually gets two. In addition to the reindition of 'Knock on Wood' she performs for the school in the film's final minutes, Natasha Bedingfield's 'Pocketful of Sunshine' is forever indebted to this film for getting stuck in the heads of many for years since.

Ever since the clock ticked over into 2020, writing this love letter to 'Easy A' has been on my mind. Even after 10 years, its themes of female sexuality and slut-shaming in teenagers is as pervasive as ever, and I am so glad I had this movie growing up - a clever teen sex comedy that never resorts to being overly raunchy. In addition to being hilarious, it is an incredibly important look into how female sexuality can be controlled and governed by others from teenagerhood, teaching its young female audience that "it is nobody's goddamn business" except their own. I couldn't have said it better myself.