New On Netflix: Easy A

Not as much a (rather clever) hipster updating of The Scarlet Letter as it is a showcase for the amazing Emma Stone, Easy A takes its classical literature roots only so far as it has to (which isn’t much beyond the initial premise) before it finds its own stride as an unmistakably contemporary portrait of high school in America: a place where one can move up and down the social hierarchy with the kind of speed and non-logic that hasn’t been seen since the likes of the Roman Empire. Roberts plays a teenager who stops being a non-entity when she reinvents herself as the class slut, a stunt that prompts all sorts of rumors, secrets and lies that threaten to tear down the already fragile walls of Ojai North High School. A pretty good romp, even if it’s ultimately just another Heathers wannabe that doesn’t really come close; again, Roberts rules, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are a riot as her hippie parents.