A Star is Born

Continuing our slate of sex comedies, today we want to discuss one of the true lifebloods of this genre: the teen sex comedy!

Tyler Clark
June 20, 2023

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the Film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston.

Easy A (2010)

Continuing our slate of sex comedies, today we want to discuss one of the true lifebloods of this genre: the teen sex comedy!

As with many genres, the best films in the genre are actually a deconstruction of the genre itself. Think The Searchers for westerns or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for superheroes.

These are movies that are not just performing their genre duties well, but are actively commenting on the genre itself. Not parenting, just pure and simple deconstruction.

Today’s film brilliantly does that for the teen sex comedy in a way that doesn’t lose the charm of the genre, but also sidesteps the more problematic elements of it.

Let’s Talk About Sex

As mentioned before, this film really focuses a lot on the deconstruction of its genre, specifically deconstructing sex and the role that society plays in it.

It's a film that’s able to have these discussions in a frank way that is neither titillating nor dismissive but is still fun. The film is able to discuss topics such as slut shaming, homophobia, extreme conservative Christianity, and just how hard high school is in a tight 90-minute package.

It does it all very expertly without ever feeling preachy.

A Star is Born

This film boasts an amazing cast from Thomas Haden Church to Lisa Kudrow and pitch perfect legendary performances from Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson.

But out of all the performances, the one that sticks out the most is the star herself, Emma Stone.

This film was an absolute win for Stone. Even watching her self audition tape that she filmed on her laptop camera you can tell that this is a firecracker movie star who will be with us for years to come.

Penderghast is an amazing character in the world of teen sex comedies and there’s nobody more perfect for that role than Stone. Her combination of charm, sarcasm, and cuteness, but with a little bit of edge that’s so perfectly synced to the film.

This role will even define the next 3 to 5 years of her career moving into works like The Amazing Spider-Man and Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Call and Response

The other interesting about this film is that it’s in constant dialogue with other teen movies, not just in its references, but also because it’s a teen comedy based on a classic literary text. In this instance, it’s The Scarlet Letter.

The movie falls into what we described last week as the Trenchcoat Phenomenon. In other words, for many teenagers at the time, early Gen Z to late Millennials, this was their first exposure to any classic literature and introduced them to the whole world of John Hughes.

Today’s Scene

Stream It

If you want to watch Easy A at home, you can find it here.