John Hughes is in fashion now-a-days isn’t he? Especially his movies. Since the directors who grew up with his movies starting from the 80s are all grown up and are making films now with homage after homage its practically spot the reference. This seems like one of the earliest homages (from what I saw), coming out in 2010 and now with Netflix’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and every teen rom-com trying to catch that feel it seems it won’t end any time soon.
Summary:
Olive Penderghast is a high school student who lies to get out of a camping trip with her friend Rhiannon’s and her parents. Lying that she has a date with a guy and mistakenly saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong place starts a rumour mill going with the news that she has lost her virginity. When she decides that having this new recognition isn’t so bad she starts lying by saying she slept with a certain guy, mostly unpopular types, to boost their status in exchange for money or what they can give. Soon though trouble starts and popularity isn’t what it’s amped up to be, with the schools rumour mill churning ever more untruths, slut-shaming and all set in a bright package with an edge to it.
I like this movie a lot. It’s the first time I saw Emma Stone and fell in love with her hair, since I might have had my hair dyed copper a few times because of this movie…and i might have also had my hair cut a little like hers. The literary references are top notch along with the humour and the obligatory John Hughes references don’t take too much space and the film is clearly its own thing. And a fabulous one at that.
Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast is the every girl whose organic growth of confidence is lead by a lie that makes her feel powerful and seen like she never was before. Her comic timing and deadpan humour is so natural that one wants to imitate her.
Amanda Bynes as a picketing Christian good girl Marianne Bryant is perfect in her role. She is somewhat overdramatic, but that just adds to the characters overdramatic personality.
Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s parents are a true highlight of the movie. Every scene they are in is funny and heartwarming. They are very liberal parents with no qualms coming their way and give their kids a wide berth. It’s refreshing to see parents who are this good with their kids, since it’s a really bad cliché that the teens parents are monsters or just plain embarrassing.
This is a very queer friendly film with the characters being completely free for all in orientation for whomever is watching, the dialogues support this as well as the acting. Though if there is one fault in the film then its the fact that its very white, I mean there are in California and even I know its much more diverse than shown here. Then again I have never been to California so I might be wrong if there are some pockets there that are this white.
So yeah watch this fun movie with so much more brain than the usual cliché teen comedies that the film is very aware of. That is what makes it fun, but there are dramatic moments as well that will hit home for some people.
Thank you for reading!
The Little Corner 