Easy A

A high-school nobody (Emma Stone), through a series of misunderstandings, gets an erroneous reputation as the school slut; at first she revels in the sudden attention, but soon she starts feeling like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (which she’s reading in English). There’s no way the stunningly beautiful Stone—or the bright, witty character she plays—could ever get through high school unnoticed, but once you swallow that whopper, the movie is a delight from top to bottom. Bert V. Royal’s script is a mine of clever dialogue and levelheaded insight, and Will Gluck’s direction is breezy and easygoing. For once the grown-ups (Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Malcolm McDowell) seem almost as smart as the kids (Amanda Bynes, Alyson Michalka, Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd).