Olive’s best friend Rhiannon at school is so nosey that to stop her pestering with questions about the previous weekend she spent alone she says she slept with a college boy. This information is overheard in the next bathroom stall by Marianne, who is a pious Jesus freak and is so totally horrified that she quickly spreads it around the entire High School. When confronted with the exaggerated stories about her promiscuity, Olive refuses to deny them and so soon gets a reputation as being a ‘good-time’ girl. But rather than hiding in shame she defiantly decides to use it for her own good, and starts by taking a lead from ‘The Scarlet Letter’ which they are studying in English Class, she sews a capital A on her clothes and parades around in skimpy skanky clothes.
Marianne’s little group of do-gooders publicly denounce her, which only encourages the attention of all the boys who believe the rumors and want to have a date with her. Including Brandon who is gay and who (in an hilarious scene) persuades Olive to fake a noisy make-out session with him so that the other kids will think he is straight and get off his case. This works so well that Olive soon has a whole list of geeks and nerds who want her to work the same magic on their own dismal standing at school.
All’s well that end’s well cos despite all the innuendos and smuttiness our girl, like in any good Doris Day movie, is still a virgin and she will naturally get her man (or rather in this instance , a big boy!). And whilst that aspect may seem a tad old-fashioned, this movie certainly is not. It’s a bright, witty and extremely funny comedy that is totally engaging and also manages to score a few points about the less amusing topical subject of mean-girl cults and bullies.
Add to the mix the adults in Emma’s life like her offbeat ex-hippie parents who are fazed by absolutely nothing, and played by the wonderful Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci. And her misguided Guidance Counselor (Lisa Kudrow) who’s been sleeping with a cute but dumb Christian student who hasn’t graduated in 4 years.
Olive is played by Emma Stone who makes this movie her very much her own with her sassy brilliant performance and is the main reason that I so liked this high-school comedy which would not normally have figured on my viewing schedule …but I’m so glad that it did. She will be a big star.
