# Easy A
**Easy A** is a 2010 American teen comedy film directed by [Will Gluck](https://www.edgepedia.org/will-gluck), written by Bert V. Royal, and starring [Emma Stone](https://www.edgepedia.org/emma-stone) as Olive Penderghast, a clean-cut high school student whose small lie about losing her virginity spreads through her school and transforms her reputation.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) The film is a contemporary reimagining of [Nathaniel Hawthorne](https://www.edgepedia.org/nathaniel-hawthorne)'s *The Scarlet Letter*, with Olive echoing Hester Prynne by sewing a red letter "A" onto her clothing.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy-a) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010) Released by Screen Gems on September 17, 2010, it earned strong reviews and became a box-office success on a modest budget, and it is widely credited with making Emma Stone a star.[5](https://www.fandango.com/easy-a-131556/movie-overview) • [6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1282140/) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | September 17, 2010 (United States); PG-13; running time about 1 hour 33 minutes[5](https://www.fandango.com/easy-a-131556/movie-overview) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) |
| Director and writer | Will Gluck (director); screenplay by Bert V. Royal[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) |
| Source text | Contemporary reimagining of Nathaniel Hawthorne's *The Scarlet Letter*[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy-a) |
| Box office | $75,032,374 worldwide on a budget of $8,000,000; domestic opening $17,734,040[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1282140/) |
| Critical reception | 85% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (192 reviews); Metascore 72 based on 35 critic reviews[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) • [1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) |
| Lead performance | Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast; Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) |
| Notable cast | Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
Olive Penderghast, a socially invisible student at East Ojai High School, tells her best friend a flippant lie about having lost her virginity to a college student over the weekend. A religious classmate, Marianne ([Amanda Bynes](https://www.edgepedia.org/amanda-bynes)), overhears the conversation in the bathroom and spreads it across campus, and Olive becomes notorious overnight.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) • [7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/46569/easy-a/)
Rather than quashing the rumors, which are untrue since she is still a virgin, Olive embraces them once she sees the popularity that a supposedly sexually active reputation generates. Boys begin paying her to say they have been with her, and she sews a scarlet letter "A" onto her wardrobe, borrowing the idea from *The Scarlet Letter*, which her class is studying in English.[7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/46569/easy-a/) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010) As the lies intensify and adults become entangled, including her favorite teacher Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church) and his estranged wife, the guidance counselor ([Lisa Kudrow](https://www.edgepedia.org/lisa-kudrow)), the situation spirals beyond her control.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010) With the support of her parents ([Stanley Tucci](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-tucci) and [Patricia Clarkson](https://www.edgepedia.org/patricia-clarkson)) and a longtime crush (Penn Badgley), Olive eventually takes on her notorious identity and confronts the rumor mill directly.[8](https://www.sonypictures.ca/movies/easy-A)
Olive narrates much of the story through a video blog, a device the film uses for its direct-to-camera confessions and its closing webcast, in which she denounces the intrusion into her life while other characters reflect on their own roles in her story.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/easy-a-at-10-the-definitive-millennial-high-school-movie-emerges)
## Production
Will Gluck came to the film after more than a decade in television, working for writers including Mitch Hurwitz of *Arrested Development* and Darren Star of *Sex and the City*, and running the short-lived Fox comedies *The Loop* and *Luis*.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-jul-19-la-et-will-gluck-20110719-story.html) The film premiered at the 2010 [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival), where Gluck said of his lead, "[Emma] got this character down in one second, she was amazing."[11](https://www.screendaily.com/will-gluck-/5017794.article) • [12](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/easy-a-emma-stone-patricia-clarkson-stanley-tucci-penn-badgley-b454655.html)
The film was shot at a high school in [Ojai, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/ojai-california), where most of the extras were students at the school in real life. Stone and the crew spent 14 hours on a shooting stage working through all the webcam footage, and the fake-sex scene was shot over two days that fell so far apart they nearly bookended the entire shooting schedule.[7](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/46569/easy-a/)
## Reception
**Critical response.** Easy A received generally favorable reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 85% Tomatometer from 192 reviews, with the critics consensus calling it "a smart, witty showcase for its irresistibly charming star, Emma Stone"; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 77%.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a) Metacritic assigned a score of 72 based on 35 critic reviews, with 91% of them positive.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) Roger Ebert, the longtime [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic, called it "a funny, engaging comedy" and wrote that the film takes "the familiar but underrated Emma Stone and makes her, I believe, a star."[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010) [The Wall Street Journal](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wall-street-journal)'s Joe Morgenstern credited the film with catapulting Stone "into a higher place reserved for American actors who can handle elevated language with casually dazzling aplomb."[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) Reviewers frequently compared it to earlier teen classics: The New York Times found it not as good as *Clueless* but noted the "one-liner-loaded screenplay has the same insouciant charm," and critics also invoked John Hughes films such as *Ferris Bueller's Day Off* and *The Breakfast Club*.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/) • [13](https://insidepulse.com/2010/09/19/easy-a-review/)
**Box office.** Against a budget of $8,000,000, the film opened domestically at $17,734,040 and for a worldwide total of $75,032,374.[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1282140/)
**Awards.** Emma Stone received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and the film won the Critics' Choice award for best comedy.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a)
## Legacy
The film is often described as Emma Stone's breakthrough. Time noted that at 26 she had been a leading lady for some five years "since her 2010 breakthrough in Easy A," and contemporary reviews framed it as her star-making turn.[14](https://time.com/3960218/emma-stone-woody-allen-joaquin-phoenix-irrational-man/) • [13](https://insidepulse.com/2010/09/19/easy-a-review/) It was also Amanda Bynes's last movie before she left acting.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy-a)
Scholarly commentary has treated the film as a genre landmark. A book-length study argues that Easy A is the last significant box-office success in the high-school teen movie subgenre and marks the end of the commercially successful high-school teen comedy, comparing it with films of the 1980s and 1990s.[15](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326128698_Easy_A_The_End_of_the_High-School_Teen_Comedy) A retrospective at RogerEbert.com called it "the definitive millennial high school movie," arguing that rather than reheating older narratives, the film sensed how a new generation came of age and adapted its story to that reality.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/easy-a-at-10-the-definitive-millennial-high-school-movie-emerges) Time later described it as a fresh take on *The Scarlet Letter* and a useful refresher on high-school social issues, particularly "slut shaming," a practice that came under broader attack in the years after the film's release.[16](https://time.com/3837281/streaming-movies-millennials/) [Entertainment Weekly](https://www.edgepedia.org/entertainment-weekly) ranked it number 14 on its 2021 list of the best high school movies.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a)
## References
1. [Easy A Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/easy-a/)
2. [Easy A, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy_a)
3. [Easy A, Rotten Tomatoes (critics reviews page)](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/easy-a)
4. [Don't sleep with anybody, but say you did, review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (September 15, 2010)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/easy-a-2010)
5. [Easy A Movie Tickets & Showtimes, Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/easy-a-131556/movie-overview)
6. [Easy A (2010), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1282140/)
7. [Easy A, DVD Talk review (January 13, 2011)](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/46569/easy-a/)
8. [Easy A, Sony Pictures Canada](https://www.sonypictures.ca/movies/easy-A)
9. [Easy A at 10: The Definitive Millennial High School Movie Emerges, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/easy-a-at-10-the-definitive-millennial-high-school-movie-emerges)
10. [Will Gluck experiences the benefits of success, Los Angeles Times (July 19, 2011)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-jul-19-la-et-will-gluck-20110719-story.html)
11. [Will Gluck, Screen Daily (September 13, 2010)](https://www.screendaily.com/will-gluck-/5017794.article)
12. [Sexless comedy, cool parents and a cocky Emma Stone: How Easy A redefined the Noughties teen film, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/easy-a-emma-stone-patricia-clarkson-stanley-tucci-penn-badgley-b454655.html)
13. [Easy A, review, Inside Pulse (September 19, 2010)](https://insidepulse.com/2010/09/19/easy-a-review/)
14. [Here's Why Emma Stone's Artistic Alliance With Woody Allen Is So Complicated, Time](https://time.com/3960218/emma-stone-woody-allen-joaquin-phoenix-irrational-man/)
15. [Easy A: The End of the High-School Teen Comedy?](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326128698_Easy_A_The_End_of_the_High-School_Teen_Comedy)
16. [Hey, Millennials: Here's Where You Can Stream Your Favorite Movies, Time (April 28, 2015)](https://time.com/3837281/streaming-movies-millennials/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2009 to 2010 › Released in 2010*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license