This may be the best teen comedy since Juno and, like that film, can be enjoyed by parents as well as those in high school.
Emma Stone shines as a mostly unnoticed, bright student at Ojai High in California, until after a boring weekend at home, she tells her best friend she had sex with a college student.
Unfortunately she is overheard by a busybody (Amanda Bynes) who spreads the word and makes her into the school slut. But Stone’s character kind of likes the attention she’s getting. However, it gets worse when she pretends to have sex with a homosexual friend so he can appear heterosexual. Word of her good deed gets around and she helps too many others.
It so happens she is studying The Scarlet Letter in class and as her reputation goes downhill, even though she is still a virgin, she takes to wearing slutty outfits and wearing a red A on her clothes.
Great supporting cast with Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as the coolest parents ever and Thomas Haden Church as Stone’s observant and popular English teacher. Lisa Kudrow plays his unhappy wife and the school’s guidance teacher. Even Malcolm McDowell has a small part as the principal. But this is Stone’s movie; she’s a standout.
Now a lot of this is very funny, some of it is rather silly and the film runs out of steam a bit by the end. This film might not deserve an A, but it certainly gets a B plus.
Rating: four deer of five
Next Week on Video
Predators is action-filled, but mostly unappealing.
Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.