Easy A - or “the rumour-filled totally false account of how I ruined my flawless reputation” - is a whip-smart comedy that I wholeheartedly recommend – if only because one of the main characters is called Rhiannon.

Based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 19th century classic, The Scarlet Letter, where a wanton woman is made to wear the letter A to label her as an adulteress, Easy A is a tale of the times, where losing a reputation and being the bad gal can actually transform a nerd into Miss Popularity, even if it is for the wrong reasons.

The saga starts when student Olive (Emma Stone) tells a tiny white lie to best friend Rhiannon (Alyson Michalka) about losing her virginity to a mystery man and Bible-bashing classmate Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears the confession. The rumour-mill soon goes into overdrive and Olive is ostracised. Initially distressed, Olive embraces her new lowly reputation for the good of others – and with a sense of bravado in order to gain a certain street cred. She manufactures a hook-up with a classmate to dispel whispers about him being gay and claims to have dallied with an overweight boy who fears he will never get a girlfriend. Events quickly spiral out of control and, as friends turn against her for “throwing her cat at everybody”, Olive finds a solitary ally in her school crush, Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley).

From its droll opening voiceover - "The rumours of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated” - the lines come thick and fast, sometimes a little too thick and fast. It is admittedly clever but tries oh so desperately to be achingly cool and witty.

However, leading lady Emma Stone glitters and, like her character, everyone will soon be talking about her as she sets the silver screen alight.

This film is not without its faults, though. As a high school dissection of judgemental attitudes, it hoists itself by its own petard. Olive is extremely judgemental towards the Christian character of Amanda and gets many laughs at her expense. And, although on the surface this film seems to be cheering for the underdog, it feels a little contrived as it is hard to imagine the beautiful, wise-cracking Olive ever being condescended to as she has a ready answer to every confrontation. And Olive's family is cringe-worthy in the extreme in their attempts to be “down with the kids”.

Yet this is still a top-rate film and can be classed in the same category as other high school classics like Clueless, Mean Girls, and The Breakfast Club. While it doesn't quite achieve an easy A, I would still rate it as a B-plus for style as well as substance.