If you don't know who Emma Stone is now ... you soon will! She is a star in the making, if she's not already and she completely steals this film! The talented, young, redheaded actress first gained attention for her breakout role in the Judd Apatow film "Superbad" playing opposite Jonah Hill and was last seen kicking zombie ass in last fall's hit action-comedy "Zombieland." But in Easy A the comedic actress is really allowed to find her voice with a pitch-perfect performance tailor-made to fit her trademark sarcastic demeanor. Stone takes on the tough job of anchoring an excellent supporting cast, which includes Thomas Hayden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, and she does it with style and ease. I think this film will cement Stone as a bankable movie star much in the way "Pretty Woman" did for Julia Roberts.

But besides showcasing the talents of Miss Stone, Easy A presents a brilliant, funny, clever, original and touching high school film ... the likes of which we have not seen since the classic high school comedies of the '1980s. In fact, with the possible exception of Stone's other high school picture, "Superbad," this is probably the best high school comedy of the last twenty years and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the classics that inspired it such as "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Actually, the filmmakers go as far as to actually incorporate scenes from those movies as well as many of John Hughe's films into this picture, which not only acts as a tribute but also allows them to fully embrace the homage rather then seeming like they are ripping off those classic movies from the past. Director William Gluck balances a beautiful tone of satire and humor with touching lessons about growing up. This movie oozes with quality all over!

The film begins by introducing us to Olive (the brilliant Stone) an average high school student living in Ojai, California. By all accounts Olive is pretty normal, not the most popular girl in school but not unpopular either. She has a close friend in Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) and two extremely liberal and "hip" parents in Rosemary and Dill played by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci (who would steal every scene that they are in if the rest of the cast was not as good as they are) but other than that no one really notices her. Her weekend existence consists of staying at home and dancing around her room, among other mundane activities. One day Rhiannon pressures her to tell her what she did over the weekend and rather than admitting to her boring life she makes up that she lost her virginity to a random College guy. Unknown to Olive at the time, this was overheard by her very strict Christian classmate Marianne (a hilarious Amanda Bynes), who viciously spreads the rumor around the school. Rather than fighting it Olive embraces the rumor and begins to embellish the story further until she starts to take on this made up persona. She begins to enjoy the different way that people are looking at her and all of her new found attention.

Things start to get really complicated when her homosexual friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks her to tell everyone that he lost his virginity to her so that people will not treat him badly for being gay. She agrees and they stage an elaborate hoax at a party that changes Olive's reputation for good. She begins to agree to help others change their image by "pretending" to have sex with them. As things slowly roll out of control, Olive is studying "The Scarlet Letter" in school and starts to relate to what the protagonist in that story is going through. Eventually, Olive's lies tear a rift between her and Rhiannon, causes Marianne to run a hate campaign against her, jeopardizes her chances with the school mascot, Todd (Penn Bagdley) who she has had a crush on since grade school, and unwilling involves her in the marriage of her favorite teacher (Thomas Hayden Church) and his wife (Lisa Kudrow), who is also Olive's guidance counselor. Before her dangerous reputation can cause any more harm, Olive launches a plan to illuminate the truth and set the record straight once and for all.

I can't begin to tell you how refreshing and wonderful Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci are in this film. Often in movies like these the parents are either treated as the villains or as complete idiots and they really made these two characters feel like people that you would want to know or that every kid would want as their own. It should also be noted that Olive has an obviously adopted brother and other than a couple of ridiculously funny comments from Tucci about it, it is never mentioned and I loved that. In a bad movie there would have been a sub-plot about the natural parents trying to find him and I thought it was great that the filmmakers never went there. It was very classy. Every hero is only as good as the obstacle that they must overcome and Amanda Bynes gives a fantastic performance as the overly religious villain in the film. The scenes between her and Stone are precious. Channeling her inner Jami Gertz, Bynes really creates a fully dimensional character that you love to hate but also sympathize with at times. The entire cast is great but Thomas Hayden Church also stands out as the "cool" teacher as does Lisa Kudrow who brings her special brand of wackiness to an otherwise unlikable role.

But in the end the real star of this film is Emma Stone who is absolutely perfect in her role. It's hard to imagine what came first, creating Olive or casting Emma because after you see it you will not be able to imagine anyone else ever playing that part. Much like the way Tom Cruise became a star overnight by dancing in his underwear in "Risky Business," there is a similar scene in this film that will absolutely cement Stone as a major movie star. If this was any other film I would tell you to go just for Stone's performance but the whole movie is so brilliantly and professionally done that you need to see it just because it is that good. In the end, Easy A is original, clever, smart, funny and really, really well made. The excellent script by Bert V. Royal is a big part of what makes this movie so great. In a summer that had some of the worst movies in a while, this back-to-school treat is one of the finest films of the year and I hope it gets the attention that it deserves because it is a true triumph. I recommend this film to wholeheartedly to everyone but especially fans of the great high school films of the '80s.