History Film / EasyA

Olive's life begins to resemble that of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's ''Literature/TheScarletLetter''. Olive then decides to use the rumors to her own advantage, affixing a red A to her clothing in reference to the embattled heroine of the novel. However, the glamour and mystery quickly deteriorates, and Olive must figure out how to reclaim her good reputation.

%%* TeensAreMonsters: A key theme, though there are several exceptions.

%%* AlphaBitch: Marianne Bryant. First exaggerated, then lampshaded (at one point, she holds a meeting in a place called Libbey Park), then deconstructed.

%%* BigYes: During the fake sex scene in the party.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Mrs. Griffith.

%%* TheDragon: Nina.

%%* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Rhiannon.]]

%%* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Thoroughly explored.

%%* MsFanservice: Olive and Rhiannon.

%%* OfCorsetsSexy: Olive. So very much.

%%* RightThroughTheWall: Sets up the plot.

%%* SmugSnake: Marianne and her friend, Nina.

%%* StepfordSmiler: Marianne.

%%* TakeThat: Against the Creator/DemiMoore film version of ''Literature/TheScarletLetter''.

* LovableAlphaBitch: Melody Bostic -- who according to Olive, "is the most popular girl at school, because she's really pretty and has perfect hair", setting her up in the audience's eues as an AlphaBitch -- actually seems to be decently friendly. She doesn't mind having people who are lower on the social ladder at her parties, and greets Olive when she arrives. In other words, she is more of a ClassPrincess.

* LovableAlphaBitch: Melody Bostic, -- who according to Olive, "is the most popular girl at school, because she's really pretty and has perfect hair" -- actually seems to be decently friendly. She doesn't mind having people that are lower on the social ladder at her parties, and she greets Olive when she arrives.

** References are made, complete with clips, to the many films of Creator/JohnHughes and other teen movies of 1980s (namely, to ''Film/SixteenCandles'', ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'''', Film/SayAnything'', ''Film/CantBuyMeLove''), with several of their more climactic scenes re-enacted in the film; ''three at once'' are referred in the final sequence alone - with Todd holding speakers up like Creator/JohnCusack in ''Say Anything'', then holding the fist up in the air like Creator/JuddNelson in ''The Breakfast Club'' and riding a lawnmower like Creator/PatrickDempsey in ''Can't Buy Me Love''.

** And with ''Film/CantBuyMeLove'', it's more than just the above - actually, the entire major plot device of "buying popularity at high school by paying a girl for her to pretend to be intimate with you" can be said to be borrowed from that film.

-->'''Nina''': Perhaps you should embroider a red "A" on your wardrobe, you abominable tramp.\\

* PlentyOfBlondes: Rhiannon, Marianne, Mr. and Mrs. Griffith, Micah, Melody Bostic, Olive's mom and several other bit characters. Oddly enough, redhead Olive's actress, Creator/EmmaStone, is a natural blonde herself.

* BadGirlSong: Subverted by Olive InUniverse: her big musical number at the end, "Knock on Wood," would be a magnificent example of this, except for the fact that Olive is, of course, a good girl.

* ChekhovsSkill: During the "Pocket Full Of Sunshine" montage, Olive is seen sewing. She later uses this skill to [[BuffySpeak sluttify]] her wardrobe. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'', worked as a seamstress.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Olive has this ''seconds'' after [[spoiler:informing Mr. Griffith that his wife is sleeping with a student, gave him an STD and is trying to blame it on Olive.]]

%%* CoolLoser: Olive.

* EarWorm: Olive's grandmother sends her a birthday card that plays "Pocketful of Sunshine," by Natasha Bedingfield, which Olive initially says she hates. Its earworming becomes a RunningGag through the movie.

* AttentionWhore: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example]]. Olive initially likes the increased attention the rumors gain her, which is why she does not work harder to stop them at the beginning of the film. As the story progresses, however, she begins to grow more and more dissatisfied with the results.

* TheBeard: Olive lies that she and Brandon had sex to convince people that he isn't gay.

* BigBreastPride: Rhiannon, who is very proud to learn that she is referred to as "Big Tits" when Olive is listing her personal identifiers.

* BrainyBrunette: Olive is a brunette and quiet, witty and engaging.
* BreakTheHaughty: The look on Marianne's face after [[spoiler:the podcast]] says that she's now questioning her entire existence.

* DeadpanSnarker:
** Olive...
--->'''Marianne:''' There's a higher power that will judge you for your indecency.\\
'''Olive:''' Creator/TomCruise?
** ...And again...
--->'''Olive:''' I thought fake losing my virginity would have been more special. Creator/JudyBlume should have prepared me for that.
** Lampshaded at least once:
---> "Turns out she bore her punishment with humble silence: two concepts I'm not comfortable with."
%%** Also, Mr. Griffith.
%%** And Todd to a degree.

* EthicalSlut: Olive and the movie as a whole serve as a {{deconstruction}} of the concept. We know that Olive is a kind, intelligent person who is only doing what she does to help out others, but the masses within the film view her with contempt and disgust. The fact that she has not actually performed any of the actions she is being condemned for has no impact on anything; she is just as ostracized as if she actually was engaging in all the reputed sex, and her good intentions and kindheartedness do not protect her from the judgement and hypocrisy of everybody else.

* FlexibilityEqualsSexAbility: When Olive's mother is talking about [[ReallyGetsAround her promiscuous past]], she mentions how her flexibility benefited her sex life, [[ParentalSexualitySquick much to Olive's horror]].
-->'''Rosemary:''' I was quite the contortionist! I could do this thing, I could go ''[starts imitating the position]'' I mean, my leg all the way...\\
'''Olive:''' Stop! Can you stop? Don't show me!

* FormerTeenRebel: When trying to reassure Olive, her mom describes a youth that sounds like it was actually far wilder than Olive's.
-->"I had a similar situation when I was your age. I had a terrible reputation."

* FriendsTurnedRomanticRivals: Rhiannon turns on her friend Olive after she catches her on a date with a boy she liked. Rhiannon joins a group of fundamentalist Christians who protest Olive for being promiscuous, despite earlier proudly proclaiming herself a super-slut.
* TheFundamentalist:
** Marianne Bryant, who is the head of a group of religious conservative students. Before setting her sights on Olive, who she (and everyone else) believes has had premarital sex, Marianne petitioned to have the school football team to be renamed to Woodchucks from Devils. Apparently, she picked up the trait from her father, a priest.
** Marianne's father is adamant about his own beliefs and doesn't recognize others, as evidenced by his constant corrections of Olive's hypothetical question about Hell. As far as he's concerned, Hell is a real place, and there's nothing hypothetical about it. He's a hypocrite as well; he's watching Olive's webcast, expecting her to have live sex on camera, and is disappointed when she doesn't.
* GenreSavvy: Olive, who regularly references other teen high school movies and how things don't seem to be going quite the same way.

* GoodParents: Olive's parents are happily married, very supportive of their children and treat their adopted son no different than their biological daughter. Olive's mother provides sage advice when Olive has to clean up the mess she's made of her own reputation.

* GreenEyedMonster: The reason why Rhiannon turns on Olive and tries to get her expelled is because she catches her out on a date with a boy she was interested in.
* HappilyAdopted: Olive's brother Chip, who is black, meaning it has never been much of a secret. The film makes fun of ObliviousAdoption when Chip remarks that "I'm adopted" and Dill, the dad, exclaims "What?! Who told you?!" in mock outrage as everybody else laughs.
* HappilyMarried: Olive's parents.
** Subverted with [[spoiler:the Griffiths.]] At first they seem happy, in love and adorably flirty. [[spoiler:Then we learn that their marriage is falling apart -- they haven't slept with each other in ages and she's cheating enough to have caught chlamydia.]]

* HolierThanThou: Marianne, and by extension her religious group.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Rhiannon has a tendency to be this, and Olive actually tries to call her out on it.
--> '''Rhiannon''': I had to hear from Jackie Rudetzky that you hooked up with some gay dude in a party! Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?"
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Every guy who pretends to have slept with Olive, except for Brandon, and he skips town before she can ask the favor she needs of him.
** Mrs. Griffith after she not only subverted her ReasonableAuthorityFigure first impression, but then reneged on her offer to come clean, blaming Olive for helping her in the first place, and threatening to use her authority to convince everyone to accept her lies over Olive's honesty if Olive tried to reclaim her reputation. Some have said "pure evil".
* JerkassHasAPoint: Rhiannon, despite her nastiness, does bring up fair talking points against Olive, such as the one about "not mistaking popularity for infamy."
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Olive may be a DeadpanSnarker extraordinaire, but she's a decent enough person.
* KnightInSourArmor: Olive is definitely this. For all her [[DeadpanSnarker snarkiness]], she gets into this mess in the first place because she was defending Brandon from bullying. When she agrees to take the blame for [[spoiler:Micah's catching chlamydia, it is to prevent the break-up of Mr. and Mrs. Griffith's marriage]].

* MeaningfulName: Not only is Olive an anagram of "I Love" [[LampshadeHanging (which she does explicitly spell out in one scene)]], her whole name is an anagram of "I Love Pretend Shag".

* MonochromeCasting: One common criticism of the film is that it's so very blatantly ''white''.
* MotorMouth: Olive, especially when she was younger. Lampshaded by Todd, who couldn't really keep up at the time.

* MrFanservice: Todd gets a few {{shirtless scene}}s, including one where he is dripping wet having [[SexySurfacingShot just climbed out of a pool]].

* OnlyOneName: Todd, who is only referred to with the name of the school's mascot preceding his first name.

-->'''Quiznos Guy''': New honey mustard chicken at Quiznos!\\

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Woodchuck Todd. Except for his role as the school mascot and the only person to not accept every rumor as fact, no part of his character is developed.

* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler:Between Mrs. Griffith and Micah. She gave him chlamydia.]]

* TooMuchInformation: Olive's parents do not hesitate to share info about their sex lives.
* TransparentCloset: Although Brandon is fairly StraightGay, he just seems to get picked up by everyone's Gaydar. [[DeconstructedTrope Unfortunately]], that leads to him getting bullied and the homophobic principal refusing to do anything about it.
* TroubledSympatheticBigot: Marianne starts to break down with the realization that her boyfriend is cheating on her. After she learns the truth with everyone else, she looks completely shocked and broken, as if her whole life is in question now.

* UrbanLegendLoveLife: This is the entire premise, where the teenage Olive claims to have slept with different boys in return for favors so that they can increase their sex appeal. She only realizes how far this backfired when she becomes an outcast at the school and a guy who mistook her for an actual hooker almost date rapes her.

* WhatTheHellHero: Rhiannon was the first to call Olive out on her growing reputation, though Olive shoots her down by saying she's just jealous of her new "popularity".

* WithFriendsLikeThese: Rhiannon is not a very good friend to Olive, and at one point Olive points out that Rhiannon calls her [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch "bitch"]] a lot, saying that it is not actually a term of endearment. Later on, Rhiannon actually tries to ''get Olive expelled''.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* MarkOfShame: Invoked, discussed, and inverted. When reading ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' in school, Olive and her classmates of course discuss the classic example -- Hester Prynne wearing a bright red "A" on her clothing for her crime of adultery. [[HolierThanThou Nina]] snarkily suggests Olive should do the same... so Olive obliges, by sewing a red "A" to a bunch of corsets and doing a SexyWalk into school, holding her head high. In other words, she took Nina's MarkOfShame and made it into a Mark of ''No'' Shame, essentially saying that people can brand her a slut if they want -- she doesn't care.

* SexyWalk: Olive does this on her first time wearing her "sluttified" wardrobe to her school.

** This may or may not have been intentional, but the actress who played the lead in the 1926 ''[[Film/TheScarletLetter1926 The Scarlet Letter]]'' was known to be loyal and a favorite to a man she called "[[NamesTheSame Mr. Griffith]]".

* GoodAllAlong: Marianne really hated Olive. But when Olive showed her a bit of kindness and support, she quickly changed her attitude and wanted to be friends instead. It didn't last long, but that's for entirely different reasons; [[spoiler:Marianne's boyfriend cheated on her and got a venereal disease, then lied and pretended he got it from Olive.]]

* GotOverRapeInstantly: Anson attempts to coerce Olive into sex. Woodchuck Todd who was nearby offers her a ride after she escapes. [[spoilter:Though Olive cried briefly on the drive home, the situation never comes up again and the two ride off into the sunset without further mention.]]

* GotOverRapeInstantly: Anson attempts to coerce Olive into sex. Woodchuck Todd who was nearby offers her a ride after she escapes. Though Olive cried briefly on the drive home, the situation never comes up again and the two ride off into the sunset without further mention.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Marianne and her friends (and perhaps the writer of the movie) seem to think that "adultery" means having sex outside of marriage. It actually refers to the more specific situation of a married person having sex with someone other than the person they're married to. The word someone like Marianne would use for what everyone thinks Olive is doing is "fornication."

* WasActuallyFriendly: Marianne really hated Olive. But when Olive showed her a bit of kindness and support, she quickly changed her attitude and wanted to be friends instead. It didn't last long, but that's for entirely different reasons; [[spoiler:Marianne's boyfriend cheated on her and got a venereal disease, then lied and pretended he got it from Olive.]]