The Film Experience

a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Where would gay boys be without their beards?Looking back in the past for this column, it can be very easy to think homophobia in mainstream pop culture is a thing of the 90s. Obviously, the news reflects a much more grim reality, especially when it comes to racism and transphobia. However, it wasn’t long ago that Proposition 8 passed in California in 2008, banning same sex marriage. Though it would be overturned, this gives a good barometer how LGBTQ+ people were far from the mainstream well into the millennium. Even in 2010, it wasn’t easy to be openly gay, no matter how many “It Gets Better” videos people watched or “No H8” photo shoots were done.

This fact is central to the inciting incident of the Will Gluck 2010 comedy Easy A. The high school comedy and sleeper hit launched the A-list career of Emma Stone. Yet it's actually Dan Bryd’s Brandon who sets the plot into motion...

All good friendships start in detention.

Brandon: You don't understand how hard it is, all right? Hmm? I'm tormented everyday at school. It's like I'm being suffocated, and sure we can sit and fantasize all we want about how things are going to be different one day, but this is today and it sucks... So please just help me. I can't take another day of this, I don't know what I'll do.

When wallflower Olive (Emma Stone) attends detention with Brandon, the two rekindle their friendship. This is just enough to make Brandon feel safe to come out to her, though speculations of his sexuality have made him the target of bullying. While he may be comfortable in himself enough to talk to Olive, he isn’t ready to live his truth in high school. He asks Olive to pretend to have sex with him so he can live the rest of high school as a straight man. It’s a lie, but it’s a lie that will give them both what they want. It will raise Olive’s profile, while also making Brandon invisible and no longer the target of homophobic bullies.

While the premise is presented in a very cutesy way, it is all based in queer fear and trauma. Easy A takes place in sunny Ojai, a Southern California wine town, during a time post-Prop-8. By all accounts, this setting should be a relatively accepting space. Olive’s friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) was raised by hippie parents, for heaven’s sake. Yet, even in this supposed safe haven, the prevailing attitudes of fellow students are to hurt or gossip about Brandon, rather than accept him. The robust religious community, led by the fiercely vindictive Marianne (Amanda Bynes), wield their power against assumed-to-be gay Brandon and assumed-to-be slutty Olive. While popular people hurl punches at Brandon, Marianne’s religious beliefs represent the mainstream thought that the school mostly buys into.

Sharing scenes with Patricia Clarkson as a teen is a surefire way to become gay.

Brandon: Just one good, imaginary boink!

Olive Penderghast: You are on crack! And not the good kind.

Brandon: It doesn't have to be a boink. It could be anything - it could be an imaginary butter-bean, lemon squeeze, cowbell...

Olive Penderghast: I don't know what any of that means.

Brandon: Well, that's because you're a virgin.

Brandon and Olive’s plan pretty much goes off without a hitch by the end of the first act. They attend Melody Bostick’s party, take over one of the bedrooms and make loud sex sounds so the whole party hears them. Brandon walks out of the room greeted by cheering fellow classmates. By the time Olive leaves the room, no one is there to talk to her. The limelight doesn’t reach her until the following day, after the rumor mill has been spinning. As a friendship between a straight woman and gay best friend, Brandon and Olive’s relationship is transient. The minute they have sold the illusion that Brandon is straight, their friendship dissipates. That moment at Melody Bostick’s party exemplifies the conflict and thorniness of high school friendship dynamics. As a gay man, Brandon can be beat up and maligned. Yet, once he’s seen as a straight, sexually active guy he is a king. Meanwhile, Olive goes from being invisible to being infamous.

From here on out, the movie switches to Olive’s perspective. Brandon has informed many of the less popular men in school what Olive REALLY did for him (faked having sex with him). They all come to Olive to pay for “fake sex” so they can be considered cool by the rest of the school. Olive continues to keep up the charade, earning the ire of Marianne and setting in motion a wild chain of events involving a large, great supporting cast. Plus, she wears a red “A” on her clothes like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. Easy A is quite the romp! While Brandon uses Olive to run from his truth, Olive chooses to double down on her lie to make a point. For women, there’s no denying unfavorable names, only learning how to own them.

It is still absolutely insane that "Lizzy Maguire" star LaLaine pops up out of nowhere to deliver one line of exposition and then zip away, never to be heard from again.

Gossipy Girl: Oh my God, did you hear that Brandon ran away from home? Yeah. Totally. He left his parents a note that said: Fuck you, I'm gay. And then he skipped town with a big, hulking black guy!

Olive Penderghast: [to herself] My apologies to Mark Twain.

As Olive is struggling to keep up her charade, she learns that Brandon embraced his truth and ran away. Boy does the Mark Twain allusion not age well, especially considering there are almost no people of color throughout the film. Casual racism aside, it’s great to see that Brandon got his own arc and coming out moment, even if it happened off camera. Many of the Gay Best Friends we’ve covered only exist within the confines of their female friend. Brandon doesn’t get screen time, but his story continues off frame, paying off in the end.

Still, Easy A finds itself adding on subplots and new characters rather than fully developing the ones it already has. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are some of the funniest parents put on screen (they deserve their own movie, or at least a follow up). Compare that to Lisa Kudrow and Thomas Haden Church, two funny actors who feel shoehorned into an already crowded film. Instead, Brandon’s journey of self-discovery through living a lie feels parallel and relevant to Olive’s storyline.

As Olive gives her final webcast setting the record straight, we see Brandon cuddling with his new boyfriend. It’s nice that by embracing his truth, Brandon found happiness. In that respect, Easy A succeeds. It manages to acknowledge how hard coming out can be and how joyous finding acceptance and love can feel. It turns out, for Brandon and many other queer youth, it does get better.

Previously in Gay Best Friend

pre stonewall

post stonewall

1990s and the 2000s

the now