hopscotchee: stanley tucci score: 71 rating: pg-13 time: 92 minutes
not sure about you peeps, but easy a - especially its poster - is freakin' iconic!! its like when you were younger and you would see the dvd rack at best buy or something. you knew the movies that you saw were shows for your parents and therefore 'too adult' for you to watch. it didn't make them bad, but you knew they were those. you know?? easy a was that film for us. or at least one of those films. actually, fun fact!! thinking about it, this was the 1st 'adult' movie we got to watch. we felt so rebellious watching it when we were home sick from school, but we LOVED it!! seriously!! the plot, the soundtrack, the characters, this was essentially two-middle-finger-'screw-yous' to the ol' disney channel. so, we were beyond thrilled to be able to watch easy a for batch 3, let alone watch it with our fabby mama!! it was absolutely a treat!! the smiles are still on our faces!! but, without stalling, here is our analysis of a classic:
right out of the gate, we must state that this is definitely one of our favorite rom-coms (along with love, simon). clearly, this bias won't sway the score in any way, however, our loves for this film still stayed true while watching it with a critical eye. one of the reasons was the cast. it seems unsurprising that we are going to start this review out with a shout out to the cast, because, obviously, obviously, the line up is unbelievable. it may even be a little redundant to mention at this point, seeming that this film came out in 2010 and plenty of time has passed to praise these said actors, yet we never say no to making someone's day. henceforth, here we go!! firstly, don't try to lie. if you have seen this film - no matter when - you definitely wanted to be emma stone. easy. (lol didn't intend that pun). anyways, they couldn't have casted anyone better for olive than emma. she's charismatic, funny, witty - she's got it all (and you want some of it, too). likewise, the casting agents couldn't have parented up emma any better than with stanley tucci and patricia clarkson. they truly don't have to try to be cool parents, and that is exactly what you feel watching them be emma's. and love it or hate (really talking to ourselves with this one), but penn badgley is a perfect woodchuck todd. he may be douchey and deadly characters in his other roles, but, in this one, he's a early 2000s dream boy (hashtag waterparks). well, kinda. speaking about that....
another love we have for this movie that kept up for the most-ish part was the script/plot. reasonably so, it's plated with funny one-liners, comebacks (like the classic-mom "oooo burn" moment), and spicy but subtle plot twisties (like when there is only roughly 25-ish minutes left in the film, and you are expecting the conclusion to be coming, but (spoiler) olive is asked out by the archetypal early 2000s douche guy only to realize that he is, like stated, a douche and only wants to go on a date to give her a home depot gift card....if you know what that means....). that said, watching it back, we did find some plot holes. for example, (spoiler) if olive is recording her webcast (wow, so early 2000s!! sorry) in the present, after all of the rumor-mill-chaos has happened, wouldn't she know that brandon ran off in his mark twain huck finn sitch?? 'cause she says that she doesn't know anyone who has been in that situation in her webcast?!?! similarly, at the end, we see a series of shots of people logged on to watch olive's webcast. one of these viewers being her teacher. just going off of the fact that olive announced to the school that her webcast would be of her (spoiler) "doing" woodchuck todd, don't you think that is a little suss of mr. teacher?? the answer is abso-freakin-lutely!! while we are on the topic of suss, can we just say that we never get an answer to why penn badgley (woodchuck todd) is now all of a sudden interested in emma stone (olive). but we can assume that it must NOT be because of her new wardrobe, right?? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨
regardless of creepy early 2000 laugh-it-offs, easily the best part of the movie was its soundtrack. literally, we get "pocketful of sunshine" by natasha bedingfield, "perfect picture" by carlos bertonatti, "bad reputation" from punk's princess avril lavigne, "number 1 (tide is high)" by cardinal offishall and keri hilson, and "transatlanticism" by the solid stapple themselves, death cab for cutie!! and that's only naming a few of the soundtrack's hits!! plus, let's not forget how perfectly fitting the pussycat dolls' hit, "don't cha", embodies the scene of an early 2000s party!! oh!! how could we forget!! melody bostic's party!!
we need to give a quick shout out to the set and props department. the house was fit with what was common for the time, but, looking back, it is an essential 2010 time capsule. our personal favorite (aka annie's) was the britney spears circus album poster on the wall of her bedroom right next to a super nostalgic looking purple computer digital art poster that had a purple butterfly. even though this house was a haven for y2k babies, the simplicity of it kept it very genuine and authentic, which also preserved it for future viewers. and that goes with the other locations and sets in this film. nothing felt over-done, essentially. so, once again, the props go to the props!!
wow!! can't we rant when it comes to movies?!?! now, to keep it short and to the point, easy a, to quote our beautiful guest aka mom, gets an "easy a" from us.
-- thanks, stanley xo