By Hannah Alley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNbPnq yvItk

Its a 2010 American teen comedy film written by Bert V. Royal, directed by Will Gluck, staring Emma Stone The screenplay was initially inspired by the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne The film was shot at Screen Gems studios and in Ojai, California Screen Gems distributed with a release on September 17, 2010 It was released on DVD & Blu-ray Disc on December 21, 2010 The film received positive reviews and huge financial success

Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) lies to her best friend Rhiannon Abernathy (Aly Michalka) about going on a date in order to get out of camping with Rhiannon's hippie parents. Instead, she hangs around the house all weekend listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine". The following Monday, pressed by Rhiannon, Olive lies about losing her virginity to a college guy. Marianne Bryant (Amanda Bynes), a strictly religious girl at their school, overhears her telling the lie and soon it spreads like wildfire. The school's conservative church group run by Marianne decides Olive will be their next project. Olive confides the truth to her friend Brandon (Dan Byrd), and he explains how others bully him because he is gay. Brandon later asks Olive to pretend to sleep with him so that he will be accepted by everyone. Brandon convinces Olive and they pretend to have sex at a party. After having a fight with Rhiannon over Olive's new identity as a "dirty skank", Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new image as the school tramp. She begins to wear more provocative clothing and stitches a red "A" to everything she wears. Boys who usually have had no luck with girls in the past beg Olive to say they have had sex with her in order to increase their own popularity, in exchange for money, in turn increasing her reputation. Things get worse when Micah (Cam Gigandet), Marianne's 22-year-old boyfriend, contracts chlamydia from sleeping with Mrs. Griffith (Lisa Kudrow), the school guidance counsellor, and blames it all on Olive. Olive agrees to lie to cover up the affair so that the marriage of her favorite teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church), would be spared. Marianne's religious clique, which now includes Rhiannon, begins harassing Olive in order to get her to leave school. After an ill-fated date with Anson (Jake Sandvig), a boy who wants to pay her to actually sleep with him and not just pretend she did, Olive reconnects with Todd (Penn Badgley), her old crush, who is also the school's mascot. Todd then tells her that he does not believe the rumors because he remembers when she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive then begins to ask everyone she lied for to help her out by telling the truth, but Brandon and Micah have abruptly left town and everyone else is enjoying their newfound popularity and do not want the truth to get out. Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth and when Olive threatens to expose her, Mrs. Griffith rebuffs her, saying no one would believe her. Olive, out of spite, then immediately tells Mr. Griffith, who believes her and separates from Mrs. Griffith. After a friendly talk with her eccentric, open-minded mother Rosemary (Patricia Clarkson), Olive comes up with a plan to get everything finally out in the open. She then does a song and dance number at a school pep rally to get people's attention to watch her via web cam, where she confesses what she has done. The various boys whose reputations Olive helped improve are also shown watching. Later, Olive texts Rhiannon apologizing for lying to her. When she is finishing up her web cast, Todd comes by riding a lawnmower and tells her to come outside. She goes outside to meet him, they kiss and the two are shown riding off on the lawnmower.

The synopsis is this; Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) is a 18 year old who is neither outcast nor popular, simply existing in her sunny Florida high school. When she lies to her best friend about losing her V-Card she is overheard by evangelical Christian Marianne (Amanda Bynes) and rumours start to spread. Olive helps out a gay classmate by pretending to sleep with him, starting off a chain of events in which she quickly becomes known as the school whore, and she decides to perpetuate that image

There is an overt literary reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter--a good choice by director Will Gluck since most teenagers have been obliged to read the novel. Olive jokes about having some integrity because she watched the original movie, but her English teacher Mr. Griffith knows that she's read the book. Once Olive accidentally launches a rumour that she's slept with a college student the previous weekend (even though she hasn't), soon, thanks in part to the speed of texting, everyone on campus knows about it.

When she stokes the rumour mill by pretending to sleep with a gay friend Brandon so that he can avoid getting beaten up every day, she decides to embrace her shame, as it were, by sewing a red A on the front of a black bustier and strutting around campus flaunting her new reputation. (She also wears black Wayfarers, aligning her newfound notoriety with Madonna in her seminal video "Lucky Star.")

Mean Girls (2004). Another witty, well-written film that comes to mind in part because Emma Stone closely resembles Lindsay Lohan. Both movies feature a highly marginalized heroine who looks around for a way to stand out in a new high school, only in this case a group of "Plastics" is the source of all the friction instead of a Christian group run by Amanda Bynes (Marianne). Both films feature unusually sympathetic adults, with Tina Fey playing the "cool" teacher as Church does in this film.

As the Christian organization increasingly goes on the rampage against Olive, I was reminded of the lynch mob that appears near the end of Night of the Hunter (1955).

Easy A owes a whole lot to John Hughes, but like Scream, it wears its influences on its sleeve, turning homage into satire. Arguably though, the film goes further. Rather than simply poke fun at the genres conventions, the comedy here masks a deeper social commentary. While the smart ass dialogue rattles along at breakneck speed, the tensions of high school and indeed adult life shimmer underneath the one liners.

The war between Christianity and Atheism is prominent, as are issues of class, sexuality and even teacher/student relations. The Scream similarities continue with an edgy self awareness Bert V. Royals snappy screenplay continously references not only other movies of its ilk, especially Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club, but knows and states explicity that this is a teen movie; now isnt that always the way, the books you read in class always have some strong connection with whatever angsty adolescent drama is going on The film uses this hyper self awareness a strong post-modern trait.