Home > Movie Reviews > Easy A Movie Review
Easy A
MPAA Rating
PG-13
for mature thematic elements involving teen sexuality, language and some drug material
Genre
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director
Will Gluck
Starring
Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes
Studio
Sony Pictures
Release Date/In Theaters
9/17/2010
Movie Summary
Olive, a high school student uses The Scarlet Letter as the basis for plots to increase her popularity and finances by portraying herself as an easy girl. In the process, she is faced with the ramifications of her façade.
Movie Review for Parents
-by Ginger
Easy A centers on teenage politics and social games. The plot of the movie takes it to a level that is not for younger audiences, or even early teens. Many teens can relate to the character Olive Penderghast, played by Emma Stone. With a release date that happens to coincide with the beginning of the new school year, the movie deals with topics that every goody two-shoes and class geek can relate to. The MPAA rates the movie as a PG-13, but I would question a Junior High student seeing this movie. It had some inappropriate language, but that is not the real reason for this recommendation. It has suggestions of sexual activity, although none really occur on screen. As a matter of fact, that is what the entire movie is about.
The entire plot of the movie makes it questionable for early teens or pre-teens. The plot revolves around using sexual promiscuity as a way to get what the main character wants. Even though the main character keeps her virginity, she pretends otherwise to gain financial and social success. The main character is successful using this tactic, which sends the message that losing your virginity or pretending to lose your virginity is cool. It sends a strong message that keeping your virginity is not cool.
The movie goes even further in its poor treatment of these important teen issues regarding sexuality in that it never even addresses the issues of safe sex, or teen pregnancy. It makes teen sexuality appear to be a great way to get ahead and never addresses any of the dangers associated with it. The only consequence is to the main character’s reputation, but even this is treated rather lightly and in a comedic way by the parents.
This movie is twisted in the roles of the protagonist and antagonist. The antagonists in the movie promote virginity and social responsibility. The protagonist promotes sexual irresponsibility. The parallelism between the main character and the Scarlet Letter further highlights the theme. In one scene the character’s mother admits to her daughter that she had a reputation problem too when she was a teen. Only the mother really did have sex with both boys and girls. This is not good parental modeling.
I need not go on about the inappropriateness of the movie for the intended audience. If your teen is already in high school, they will probably hear about it anyway, but if they are younger than high school, I would definitely avoid this movie like the plague. If your teen does see it, be sure to follow up and use it as an opportunity to discuss important issues such as abstinence, safe sex, and teen pregnancy. In my book, this movie gets a big scarlet “NW” posted on it for “No Way.”
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