Posts tagged with “emma stone”
Not As Easy As You’d Think
I would agree!
EASY A (2010/IN THEATERS) I am what you would call an optimist. I choose to believe that things are never as bad as they might seem, and if they are pretty bad, that the worst of it is likely over, and it’s only going to get better from here. While this mindset has served me well for the most part, it has also resulted in my viewing many terrible movies. I always try keep an open mind and not let bad prerelease buzz or internerd word of mouth (uhhhhh, Kimberly) sully my nugget with any preconceived notions that might affect the way I would otherwise naturally respond to a film. While this has worked out for me occasionally (HELLO, The Last Exorcism), it has more often led me to watching my fave Hollyweirdos wallowing in their lesser (read: crap) works. Which brings me to the always charming young actress Emma Stone and her first lead role in Easy A, which, surprise!, kinda sucks. What shocked me even more than how much this film did not work for me was discovering how well reviewed it has been by just about everybody else, which leads me to a sad, inevitable truth: Everybody else is so very dumb. But you can better believe they think just the opposite, smugly sitting back in their luxury cineplex “love seats,” basking in the buttery glow that is recognizing a few arcane references stuffed into an otherwise tired and joyless exercise in “smart” teen comedy. I pity them.
The story follows virgin nobody high school student Olive (Stone, as charming as possible amidst some unfortunate ham-ery) who for no good reason lies to her best friend (who is more unpleasant and mean than the heavy in this story, yet who our heroine STILL wants to be pals with at the end) about sleeping with a college boy, a conversation overheard in the ladies room and passed through the grapevine until Olive is officially considered That Kind of Girl by her gawking classmates. Olive surprises herself by welcoming the attention, and is more than happy to put her new rep to use when a gay classmate (Dan Byrd, showing more heart and depth in his couple of scenes than this thing deserves) asks her to pretend to have sex with him at a crowded party so the bullies will stop picking on him for being a sissy. When that works, and she unintentionally starts a service of sorts where she pretends to have sex with dorks for payment (of gift cards anywhere from Auto Zone to Target), the attention from her classmates turns uglier, spurring a protest from a stock group of Amanda Bynes-led Christian students right outta Central Casting (a la Saved, but without the funny, with the firm exception of Kevin Volchok [!], as awesome here as ever), who make it their mission to rid the school of this tramp. In an act of defiance inspired by her class reading assignment, The Scarlet Letter, Olive decides to respond to this attack by dressing in the tackiest Pussycat Dolls bustiers available, emblazoning upon each a stark red letter “A”. Wait, what? Read more »
The Feel-Good Zom-Com of the Year
"And that’s what I do to zombies who snicker at my lady blazer."
ZOMBIELAND (2009/IN THEATERS) As SML’s self-anointed zombie mayhem-thusiast, I ventured out to see Zombieland, despite the sleepless nights and near bedwettings some people often experience after viewing a romp through the apocalypse. What can I say, someone is a glutton for punishment. But color me surprised, Zombieland is a lighthearted dysfunctional family comedy, less goofy and satirical Shaun of the Dead than National Lampoon’s Vacation featuring a virus plague. The dramatic tension in this sucker lasts about 10 minutes, and the remainder is spent with characters gently teasing each other, driving gas guzzlers through vacant cities, and learning lessons about life, love, and family. What the fuck? An end-of-days trifle? Should we be teaching the children that zombies are not to be taken seriously? Lives could be lost!
