Easy A (2010)

Naturally, when I found out Easy A was a chick flick, I was skeptical. Even more so when I found it was set in a small town high school. However, I was in fact pleasantly surprised. There was not, in fact, a single duff joke, and all were surprisingly subtle and well thought out. For example, in most films of this type, the homosexual character would be the subject of several immature jokes. In this, however, the major joke he was pivotal in was actually a witty satire of Tom Sawyer, and the rest were mature, on an Emmy-winning sitcom level rather than on that of Adam Sandler or Ben Stiller. There is also a brilliant scene in which the main character inadvertently starts a theological debate on the existence of hell, hilariously done, whereas Sandler, Stiller, or others of that nature would probably have simply made do with a few scatological 'jokes'. Perhaps a vomiting walrus.

The acting was also very good, though not perfect, and this made many of the jokes far funnier than, again, they would be in your average film of this genre. A surprisingly amusing scene in which Emma Stone pretends to have sex with someone at a party, and the believability of the two actors involved makes generic teenage rom-com physical comedy into something far funnier.

And, in fact, most surprising of all is that the plot is actually gripping. It is in some way horrible watching the lead character's life spiral dangerously out of control, and there are a few points where you can't see how everything will sort itself out in the end.

All in all, an excellent film. I honestly can't think of a low point, and this is the paragon what all teenage comedies should be like. It is a shame so few are.