Last week I went to see the new movie Easy A.  Yes, everyone, I know that it will not win an Oscar- it’s pretty much a certainty- even though it has the fabulous Stanley Tucci in it.  The main character, Olive, tells her best friend that she lost her virginity to an imaginary blind date over the weekend.  Little does she know that the school’s resident extreme moralist is also in the bathroom (played by, of all people, Amanda Bynes.)

Overnight, Olive has earned the reputation of a floosy.  But instead of working very hard to correct the misunderstanding, Olive embraces the new image.  She starts dressing in more immodest ways and strutting around the school where she feels she can now be seen.  The story takes an interesting turn when she starts to give boys fake ‘action’ because she feels sorry for them and they give her gift cards and coupons for the exchange.  Here’s where the A comes in.  In their English class, they are reading the scarlet letter.  So eventually Olive’s best friend turns on her and Olive goes off the deep end.  now her wardrobe is all corsets and skinny jeans with, you guessed it, the letter A sewn to the front.  The moral of the story- and the slightly anticlimactic one- is that our ‘personal’ lives should be personal.

Now, this movie was funny.  Very funny.  Olive’s family is as quirky, quick and witty as she is.  But it’s poignant as well.  The pain she goes through is very real.  As she realizes she has become a stereotype and not a person anymore, I wanted to cry.  But then again, don’t I cry at everything, overly empathetic thing that I am.

However, there are a few things that I have a problem with.

First of all, the christians in this school are horrible.  Every last one of them is hateful, prejudiced and mean.  For the entire story, I kept waiting for Olive to meet a person of faith who, not only showed her kindness, but empathized with her.  She never does.

Second of all, the scarlet letter isn’t an appropriate comparison here.  For those of you who haven’t read the wonderful Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, here are the Jazz notes:

Hester Prynne has a baby while her husband is away for a length of time, meaning that she has had an affair- duh.  The town decides that her punishment is to wear a red letter A on her clothing: A for adultery.  Hester, who slept with the puritan’s town minister, is genuinley remorseful for her act, and she lives a quiet life, raising her daughter- who is suspected of being possessed, but this is neither here nor there.  Hester is the heroine of the story, demonstrating true redemption and humility.  The town minister, who struggles with confessing his sins until the very end, is really more of the villain- in my opinion anyway as he refuses to accept and acount for his sins and lets Hester carry the punishment of them both.

Olive did not commit adultery, so the letter A is completley pointless- why not an S?  That would make more sense.  And further more, Olive’s in your face attitude is as far from Hester’s demure quiet as could possibly be.  However, as my movie buddy Sophie pointed out, the point of referencing the book might be pointing more to Olive being ostrasized than anything else.  I can see that, I just think that the Scarlet Letter could have been handled with more care.  It’s like using Romeo and Juliet as an example of a happily ever after (hello Taylor Swift.)

But it was a funny movie.  Very Humorous.  It’s just sad that that’s the basic foundation of my positive reaction to the movie.  It had the potential to be so much more.

Jasmine out.

This picture is not mine- it is the property of Screen Gems Studio and found on http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=56045

Alright everyone.

For those of you who are hanging on my every word- desperate for my review of The American, here it is: watch it on DVD.

This is not because it was poorly made (it wasn’t) or because it was a stupid plotline (it was thought-provoking) or because the characters were underdeveloped (they were masterfully created.)  It’s because while the character is spending his time in Italy the movie takes a fairly distasteful turn.  The main character, Jack or Edward, is a master rifle-maker or an assassin, or both we’re not sure which.  He goes to Italy and makes an exceptional gun for a fellow assassin.  While there, he visits the red light district and falls in love with a prostitute named Clara, making him realize that maybe life isn’t all about be chased.  Good story.  Great character.  I don’t even mind the fact that the girl is a prostitute (because of the whole redemptive tone of the entire movie) however, I did not need to see them have sex for five minutes.  I’m sorry, did I say see?  I was closing my eyes and pressing my fingers against my ears.  I had to leave the theater at one point, it was just too darn distasteful.

So under the circumstances of a DVD situation, I would have felt free to skip that scene (alhthough there’s little I could have done about Clara’s outdoor topless dialogue) and enjoy the movie whose themes center around redemption, love, and things worth living for.

Hello vast audience!  It’s been a while, but I have now, officially started my second year of college- hip hip hooray!

It’s time to take on a new project.  my roommate and I- wave hello Sophie- are going to see every Oscar nominated movie BEFORE the Oscars this year.  But Jasmine, you might exclaim, the Oscar nominees aren’t out! That’s why Sophie and I are going to attempt to guess which movies are most likely to be nominated.

Last week, we went to see The Other Guys.  No, I do not think that The Other Guys will win an Oscar, sorry Mark Wahlberg, but we wanted to start off our once-a-week movie plan with something light-hearted.

The other Guys was hilarious.  normally, I don’t care for crude humor (I almost died from embarrassment at Dinner for Schmucks) but this was just perfect.  Maybe it was because, unlike Schmucks, the producers didn’t attempt any moral takeaway.  The Other Guys was what it was, a movie about two guys that have the worst possible things happen to them.  From accidentally becoming a pimp, to break-ups, to a car that really needed to be sanitized then burned, Mark and Will endured every possible humiliation.  But they’re peacocks!  You’ve got to let them fly.  Mark’s anger management routine was the funnier one I’ve ever seen because you could see it exhausted even him, and Will’s scenes with a wooden gun make you wish you had one for the bad guys to take away too.

Now, a word of caution.  When I got home and was telling my family about it, I turned to my brothers and said they needed a few more years before watching this movie (it’s quite heavy on the expletives) turned to my mother and told her she would hate it (she didn’t believe me, then went to see it on a date night with Dad and said it was the stupidest movie in the world) and told my dad that he’d probably love it.  It’s a movie with curse words in every scene and some sexual descriptions although no onscreen ludeness.  As far as the cursing goes, you have to remember what they’re trying to make fun of, and that’s guys that take themselves to seriously.

Tomorrow, Sophie and I are going to see the American.

If you have suggestions for movies you think will be nominated, my lovely, intelligent, talented and numerous audience, then please send them in!

until next time!