Perspectives from a Technogeek

The movie Easy A first caught my attention when I saw Emma Stone on Saturday Night Live.  A few months later, my sister-in-law told me about the movie and suggested that my wife and I see it.  I knew the basic premise of the movie based on what I saw on Emma Stone’s SNL opening monologue.  Other than that, I was flying blind.

Olive (Emma Stone) has such an untarnished reputation that she is essentially unknown in her school.  However, when she is overheard by the school prude Marianne (Amanda Bynes) lying to her best-friend about having sex with a college guy, she suddenly finds herself with a reputation – of being a hussy.  She cements the reputation by faking having sex with her gay friend so that he will stop being harassed about his sexual orientation.  Before long, she is helping guy after guy improve his reputation by tarnishing her own.  The only two people who don’t believe that she is doing what the rest of the school thinks are her childhood crush and the school mascot, Todd (Penn Badgely), and her favorite teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Hayden Church).  The movie includes roles by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as her parents and Lisa Kudrow as the school guidance counselor and Mr. Griffith’s wife.

To be honest, when I heard the title, I thought Olive must sleep with nerds to get better grades.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Emma Stone plays a highly intelligent girl who just got caught up in a series of bad decisions.  The title is a reference to Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which the A stands for adultery.  The book also serves as an appropriate backdrop for the storyline.

Emma Stone did an admirable job in the role.  I think she certainly earned her Golden Globe nomination.  Other than Emma Stone’s performance, though, I didn’t think there was anything redeeming about this movie.  I find it grossly discouraging (albeit realistic) that if a guy has sex with a girl his reputation skyrockets while hers plummets.  I also resented the notion of the film that she took payment for spreading the lies.  This factor brought a new interpretation to prostitution.  The story takes an unfortunate turn when Marianne’s boyfriend ends up with an STD and says he got it from Olive.  The true identity of the source creates a further sad commentary about society.  The only remotely redeeming factors are that through this all, Olive’s parents are supportive of her and never question her and that her childhood crush never falls for the gossip and stays true to her.  The writers create clear and understandable reasoning for this and that is refreshing.

At the end of the film, I was quite disappointed.  I think had I seen the movie just based on my primitive knowledge from the SNL monologue, I probably would have liked it more.  However, given the enthusiastic recommendation from my sister-in-law, my expectations were higher.  The movie has its charm and a decent moral, but I found the social commentary sad.

2/5

Steve Carell is one of those actors who I either really like (Michael Scott in The Office) or want to poke in the eye (Maxwell Smart in Get Smart).  So, I had no interest in seeing this movie.  But when my wife called from the video store and started rattling off movie names, when she came to Dinner for Schmucks I said to myself, “self, what the hell” and told her to rent that.  However, before I go on, it was because of Paul Rudd, not Steve Carell.  I have loved pretty much everything I’ve seen Paul Rudd in – even Clueless.  (Oh and I’d like to give a shout out to Role Models because I have recently signed up to be a Big Brother with Big Brothers Big Sisters and am just waiting to be matched with my first “Little”.)

Dinner for Schmucks is about Tim (Paul Rudd) who is vying for a promotion at work.  When he impresses his boss, he is invited to dinner at his boss’s house.  He is told that upper management at the firm invites idiots to dinner to make fun of them behind their backs for sport.  They give the biggest idiot a trophy and send them on their way, none the wiser, while the person who brings the biggest idiot is praised.  Tim tells his fiancee, Julie, about what appears to be a pending promotion and the catch.  She asks him to skip the dinner because making fun of people, well, just isn’t cool.  Tim is about to back out when he hits Barry (Steve Carell) with his car.  We learn that Barry is a part-time taxidermist who has an affinity for mice.  He carries a book with pictures of his “Mouse”terpieces around with him.  If it isn’t worse, Barry thinks he should pay Tim money for getting in the way of his car to save a dead mouse from being squished.  Tim pegs Barry as the perfect idiot and invites him to dinner.  When Barry shows up on the wrong night, chaos ensues as Barry’s good intentions lead to problem after problem for Tim.  The film also features a hilarious role by Zach Galifianakis as an IRS auditor and mind controller whose powers only work on Barry.  We also get to see appearances by ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and Chris O’Dowd (Roy from the Britain’s The IT Crowd) as a blind fencer.

The movie was directed by Jay Roach, who brought us the Austin Powers trilogy and the first two Focker movies.  The feel of the movie is definitely more Focker than Austin Powers.  It’s also the second time that Paul Rudd and Steve Carell have played friends in film (the other being The 40 Year Old Virgin).  The movie is based on a French film called “Le Diner de Cons”.

I had low expectations for the film.  I don’t know why, but it just looked stupid.  However, after watching it, I should have expected more, because hell, Paul Rudd is in it.  I also didn’t realize that it was made by Jay Roach until I was watching the opening credits.  I also have to say, that Steve Carell is more in The Office form that Get Smart form.  I’m not sure who is dumber, though, Michael Scott or Barry.  I do know, though, that while Michael Scott is an asshole in his stupidity, Barry is endearing.  In the end, like any good buddy movie, everything patches up and Tim and Barry become good friends.

There was one thing that is kind of disturbing out the film, but is also absurdly funny.  Barry’s taxidermy is limited to mice and several times in the movie we see scenes he has created.  These scenes typically depict him in some setting.  It’s a clever way to add narration to parts of the film, but it is a little creepy at the same time.

Overall, Dinner for Schmucks far exceeded my expectations.  It’s not at all kid friendly and often has a lot of connotation that isn’t explicit but is easily understood.  That isn’t to say that it is a good movie by any means.  However, it will produce more laughs than you’d think, and perhaps like due to the mean spirited premise.

3/5