Easy A: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Todd:''' Screw these people, Olive.

 

[[File:Easy_a_australian_7159.jpg|frame]]

Rumors begin to spread and, after she spends an afternoon in detention with her gay friend Brandon, she agrees to pretend to have sex with him to help convince the school he is straight. Several boys learn what she has done and beg her to perform the same service for them, hoping to benefit from their "lost virginities". This eventually turns into a full-fledged business, lucrative for Olive and socially beneficial for the boys, but her new reputation as [[Really Gets Around|tramp/slut/skank/etc.]] gets her the attention of the local [[Holier Than Thou|Christian club]]. They want to "save" Olive, but also feel that it is vitally important to get her the hell out of the school first.

 

 

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{{tropelist}}

* [[Activist Fundamentalist Antics]]: Marianne's group is shown doing this. First against the basketball team, then against Olive. To the point of picketing ''fellow students'' with hateful slogans, Westboro Baptist Church-style.

* [[Almost Kiss]]: Olive and Woodchuck Todd when they were in eighth grade. Woodchuck Todd chickened out, and later shared his first kiss with {{spoiler|[[Jerkass|Rhiannon]]}}.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Marianne Bryant. First exaggerated, then lampshaded (at one point, she holds a meeting in a place called Libbey Park), then deconstructed.

* [[And Starring]]: [[Emma Stone]] is credited last in the opening titles despite being the lead. She is first in the end credits though.

* [[The Beard]]: Olive for Brandon.

* [[Big Breasts, Big Deal]]: [[Jerkass|Rhiannon]], who is very proud to learn that she is referred to as "Big Tits" when Olive is listing her personal identifiers.

* [[Big Yes]]: During the fake sex scene in the party.

* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: Mrs. Griffith

* [[Bi the Way]]:

** Olive's dad. He claims he was "[[Too Much Information|gay for a while]]" when he was younger, but is now [[Happily Married]] to a woman and has two children with her.

** Olive's mom, too.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: The webcast, serving as a narration device throughout the whole movie.

* [[Brick Joke]]: The ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huckleberry Finn]]'' joke.

{{quote|'''Olive:''' "Ironically we were studying "[[The Scarlet Letter]]". Isn't it always the way? The book you read in class always seems to have strong connection with whatever angsty adolescence trauma is going on. Except for ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'', 'cause I don't know any teenage boy who ran away with big hulking black guy"

'''-later-'''

'''Olive:''' ''My apologies to [[Mark Twain]].''

'''-later again-'''

* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]:

** Olive does an imitation of a [[Southern Belle|Southern Belle's]] accent when her mother jokingly tells her that Brandon has come to ask for her hand in marriage.

* [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin']]: Olive is a straight-A student who has never been in trouble before, but when she gets sent to the principal for nothing more serious than using a bad word (and not even that bad a word), he threatens to expel her if she is ever in trouble again.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: During the "Pocket Full Of Sunshine" montage, Olive is seen sewing. She later uses this skill to [[Buffy-Speak|sluttify]] her wardrobe.

** [[Genius Bonus]]: Hester Prynne, the protagonist of ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'', worked as a seamstress.

** "Goddamn shit!"

* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Some of the people watching Olive's webcast do not seem to understand, even at the end, that she is not going to be taking off her clothes.

* [[Confessional]]: Olive attempts to confess and seek advice from a priest, but the other half of the confessional is empty. "Shoulda seen that one coming."

* [[Cool Loser]]: Olive.

* [[Date Rape Averted]]: {{spoiler|Anson will not take "no" for an answer}}.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Olive.

{{quote|'''Marianne:''' A higher power will judge you for your indecency.

** "I thought fake losing my virginity would have been more special. [[Judy Blume]] should have prepared me for that."

** Also, Mr. Griffith.

** And Todd to a degree.

{{quote|"Turns out she bore her punishment with humble silence: two concepts I'm not familiar with."}}

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: "Any friend of Olive's is a friend of our daughter's!"

** "Brandon was just in the middle of telling me this ''really'' funny thing, which was ''really'' funny."

* [[Disturbed Doves]]: Parodied. When Marianne finds out that Micah has chlamydia, she screams. A video playing in the foreground shows doves taking off at that same moment.

* [[Double Standard]]: Examined; while the guys who pretend to have sex with Olive get a reputation boost, Olive herself starts to be pilloried as a slut.

* [[The Dragon]]: Nina.

* [[Eating Lunch Alone]]: Olive after she's become ostracized by much of her school.

* [[Edible Theme Naming]]: Everyone in the Penderghast family is named after food. Olive, her mother Rosemary, her father Dill and brother Chip.

* [[The Film of the Book]]: Three different film versions of ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' are cited:

** The 1926 B&W film, from which clips are shown.

* [[Framing Device]]: Olive's [[Confession Cam]] webcast to the entire school explaining the movie/situation.

* [[The Fundamentalist]]: Marianne.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Olive, who regularly references other teen high school movies (and how things don't seem to be going quite the same way).

* [[The Ghost]]: Olive's older brother, who is mentioned in passing as how she met her so-called hook-up.

* [[Headbutt of Love]]: During Olive and Brandon's "sex scene." Although completely platonic considering one of them was gay it still was a pretty [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|adorable]] moment.

* [[Holier Than Thou]]: Marianne.

** [[Jerkass Woobie]]: Despite their behavior, they ''are'' still social outcasts- not an excuse, but an explanation.

* [[Jerkass Has a Point]]: Rhiannon, despite her nastiness, does bring up fair talking points against Olive, such as the one about "not mistaking popularity for infamy."

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Olive is definitely this. For all her [[Deadpan Snarker|snarkerness]], she gets into this mess in the first place because she was defending Brandon from bullying. When she agrees to take the blame for {{spoiler|Micah's catching chlamydia, it is to prevent the break-up of Mr. and Mrs. Griffith's marriage}}.

* [[Lovable Alpha Bitch]]: Melody Bostik, - who according to Olive, "is the most popular girl at school, because she's really pretty and has perfect hair" - actually seems to be decently friendly.

* [[Marshmallow Hell]]: During the flashback with Rhiannon's parents, Olive gets a face-full of hippie boob. She was not amused.

* [[Mascot]]: Woodchuck Todd, formerly known as Blue Devil Todd (the school mascot was changed after protests from the Christian group, who claimed the mascot depicted their school as devil worshipers).

* [[Monochrome Casting]]: One common criticism of the film is that it's so very blatantly ''white''.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Olive and Rhiannon.

** The movie channel trailers are even less trustworthy, eliminating the ''fake'' aspect completely and making it look like it's the story of a hot high school girl actually turning into a total slut.

* [[New Age Retro Hippie]]: Rhiannon's parents. Olive says that they are weird even by [[California]] standards, and that they are the reason why she did not go on the camping trip with Rhiannon. In a brief flashback to the last time she hung out with them, the mom is shown with [[Godiva Hair]], and the dad is offering Olive a bong hit.

** The very obvious (and totally random) Quiznos Man.

{{quote|'''Olive''': Not now Quiznos Guy!

** Olive's family makes sure to scratch "Watch [[The Bucket List]]" off of [[The Bucket List]]

* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: A clique of [[The Fundamentalist|Christian Fundamentalists]] and a homophobic school principal in ''[[Strawman Political|California]]?'' It's more likely then you think. Not all of California is as 'Leebrul' as [[Strawman News Media|Fox News]] likes to make people think.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Played straight with Mr. Griffith, averted with Principal Gibbons, and subverted with Mrs. Griffith, who seems like a reasonable and empathetic guidance counselor, but then refuses to actually listen to Olive just when Olive is offering to open up to her, and instead assumes that the rumors about Olive are true, even though her husband had already told her they weren't. And that is before she is {{spoiler|revealed to be pure evil}}, though [[Easy A/YMMV|your mileage may vary]].

* [[Rip Tailoring]]: Olive's creation of her "A" outfits.

* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: Woodchuck Todd. Except for his role as the school mascot and the only person to not accept every rumor as fact, no part of his character is developed.

* [[Shout-Out]]: By the bucket load. Olive's excitement at having "a gentleman caller" may be one to ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]''; references are made to, complete with clips, the many films of [[John Hughes]], with several of their more climactic scenes re-enacted in the film. The [[Whole-Plot Reference|majority of the plot]] is also a reference to ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.

** Mr. Griffith also tells Olive to [[The Outsiders|"Stay golden."]]

* [[Slut Shaming]]: The story is built on this.

* [[Squee]]: Marianne does one when she and Olive make friends.

* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Marianne.

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Olive's wardrobe for much of the movie. Lampshaded, naturally.

{{quote|'''Olive's Mom:''' No judgment, but you kind of look like a stripper.

'''Olive:''' Mom!

* [[Tagline]]: Let's Not and Say We Did.

* [[Take That]]: Against the Demi Moore film version of ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''. So many times.

* [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch]]: "Let's watch [[The Bucket List]], Bitch."

** This seems to be Brandon's favorite trope: "I'm drunk, bitches, what's up?" and the quote above.

* [[This Is Reality]]: Olive frequently remarks about how certain things only happen in movies or books. [[Subverted Trope|Most of these things end up happening to her, or to Brandon, later on.]] [[Invoked Trope|Often after she has spoken about how she wants that specific thing to happen]].

** Made funnier since one of the books she cites is [[Gossip Girl]] and the actor [[Celebrity Paradox|playing Woodchuck Todd]] is in the series.

* [[Too Much Information]]: Olive's parents do not hesitate to share info about their sex lives.

* [[Troubled Sympathetic Bigot]]: Marianne seem to suffer worse from her own actions then it hurts Olive, and it's not from some kind of retributive Karma either. She seem to mean well, but be ''horribly'' misguided.

* [[Two-Person Pool Party]]: Referenced. Melody Bostic parents let her have a party ever time she catches them having sex in the pool which, according to Olive, is about once a week.

* [[Urban Legend Love Life]]: Olive's is the entire plot.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: It really seems like the Cross Your Heart Club is trying to ''help'' Olive, at least until word gets out that she banged Micah; then it was more of a grudge match.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Say what you want about Rhiannon but she was the first to call Olive out on her growing reputation but Olive shoots her down saying she's just jealous of her new "popularity".

[[Category:Easy A]]

[[Category:Film]]