“Easy A” & “Mean Girls”

The primary movie that I will be focusing on for my final exam will be the movie “Easy A”, a 2010 film directed by Will Gluck, a director best known for his work in the teen comedy genre, and written by Bert. V Royal. I will first start the essay by explaining the film’s plot itself, a comedy starring Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast who is your stereotypical average “boring” highschool girl, until she isn’t. Olive leads an average life until she becomes the subject of intense gossip after a lie she tells about losing her virginity spirals out of control. This rumour began when she lied to her friend about losing her virginity over the weekend and the “popular crowd” got wind of it and it ultimately got spun out of control. This lie was primarily driven by a desire to escape her apparent mundane, uneventful life and to gain attention.

I will then briefly discuss the secondary movie I have chosen to compare “Easy A” to, the movie “Mean Girls”. Written by Tina Fey and directed by Ted Waters, Mean Girls is similar to Easy A and shares several themes as it too focuses on the complex social dynamics and hierarchies of highschool, focusing on cliques, popularity, and the immense pressure young women face to fit in and conform. I will also mention how they differ, as I would say Mean girls is a more stereotypical version in the same genre pool as Easy A due to the plot being more superficial.

An honourable mention in my exam would be that Easy A is a movie that breaks several stereotypes in the teen comedy movie genre. For one, this movie challenges the virgin/slut division. Female characters in films are often placed into the “innocent girl” category, and the “sleazy girl” category. The plot begins when Olive tells her friend a harmless lie to avoid an awkward conversation, but when this lie about her virginity being lost is spread, she embraces the rumour instead of shrinking down to the level of those who are spreading the gossip. Olive takes pride in the “slut” label and shamelessly makes it her own, refusing to let her reputation define her. This movie also challenges the stereotypical teen movie due to the absence of the “romantic plot” as in this movie, romance is far from the main point. Olive’s story is her own and her motives are not based around a man. She does end up with someone in the end, but her journey is about asserting her individuality. This differs from competing movies as the female leads in many movies are defined by their romantic interests and relationships. There are many more stereotypes this movie breaks that I can also touch on.

I will also touch on the camera movements, edits, and mise en scene as a whole and discuss how it is used in the film particularly to enhance the impact and film as a whole. Additionally, I will introduce my sources and use Mean Girls as a stereotypical film to compare and contrast to “Easy A”.