Review: How to love 'A pocket full of Sunshine' by Natasha Bedingfield

Photo: Screen Gems

Being one of the last people in the world to see Easy A (2010) had its up and downsides. One being the long line of praisals of both Emma Stone and the movie's humour which made you feel like an complete outsider for not seeing the comicality in GIFs of Emma Stone shampooing her hair (which people on Tumblr are/were eager to reblog in masses). On the other hand, with all the recommendations and "actually-it's-not-that-funny" comments flying around one couldn't help but to build up quite some expectations of the movie.

However, a severe case of laughing cramps and a loud sing-along to Simple Mind's "Don't You" later, I just wanted to hit the play button again.

Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) is a clean-cut 17 year-old who's not very popular with the guys, or as she describes it: if Google Earth was a guy, he couldn't find me if I was dressed up as a 10-story building. Little did she know that a small lie about losing her virginity to a college student would travel á la Gossip Girl style and reach every student at the school in a matter of a few hours.

Enjoying the newfound attention, Olive agrees to pretend to have sex with a guy friend, to stop people from bullying him for being gay. One thing leading to another, she soon finds herself in a 'pay-me-and-you-can-tell-people-we-hooked-up' business that's just waiting to go wrong.

The brilliance of the movie lies in the novel take on teenage life and the spot-on comedy. Casting aside the overdone boyfriend-revenge, unrequited love and mean girls stories, Easy A explores the impact and hilarity in rumour spreading and the thin line between being a virgin-nobody and a "dirty sk*nk".

With a Diablo Cody-sharp dialogue and a brilliant performance by Emma Stone, Easy A is one of few teen movies that neither makes you want to scratch your eyes or wish you could strangle the movie characters half way through. In fact it's one of the best not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman movies since the Breakfast Club.

(and this is why I've developed a weird fondness of A Pocket full of Sunshine)
Tiffany