Review of "Easy A"

The first indication that "Easy A" is not your average teen movie comes with its supporting cast.

Oscar nominee Patricia Clarkson. Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci. Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church. Emmy winner Lisa Kudrow.

What's going on here?

What's going on is an extremely witty, inventive, sweet and perceptive coming-out party for Emma Stone ("Zombieland," "Superbad") in her first front-and-center starring role.

"Easy A" is stuffed with sharp dialogue, snappy characters and embarrassingly relevant situations. The ghost of John Hughes hovers over it and that ghost is likely smiling.

Stone plays Olive, a bright, ambitious and thoroughly overlooked high school student who tells her best friend (Alyson Michalka) that she lost her virginity to a college guy just to shut her up.

Unfortunately that false admission is overheard by the school's unofficial Christian morality monitor (Amanda Bynes) and soon, like Hester Prynne in "The Scarlet Letter," she's branded. And, for the first time, popular.

When a secretly gay guy convinces Olive to pretend to have sex with him to enhance his reputation, she figures she's just doing him a favor. Soon everybody wants favors from Olive. And some of them don't want to fake it.

The script from first-timer Bert V. Royal crackles with laughs and smarts, which is probably why Clarkson and Tucci (Olive's mom and dad) and Church and Kudrow (fave teacher and guidance counselor) signed on. All get a chance to shine under Will Gluck's direction.

But this is Stone's movie, and the relaxed, wisecracking intelligence she's shown elsewhere sparkles. Her real-feel good looks and hip attitude come across naturally on screen. She's an actress you like, simple as that.

As a result, "Easy A" isn't just a good teen movie; it's a solid, fun film, period.