The high school comedy is not an easy subject to tackle because it’s been tackled almost as much as Emma Stone’s character in Easy A would have you believe she has. It is one of the many sluts of the film genre world – it’s incredibly attractive because it’s easy to get into bed with, but it’s not like you’re going to impress anyone by going after it. Unless you nail it. Will Gluck, a man without an average high school experience teamed with Stone, an actress who didn’t go to high school, to try to do just that. Gluck was decent enough to spend more than a few minutes on the phone with me while surrounded by the insanity of the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about the challenges of being fresh with high school, creating a strong female character, and the joy of sex comedy without sex.

Rather than saying, “I wonder if the Magisterium is supposed to represent the modern Catholic church?,” sit on the edge of your seat and say “Wow! Two polar bears beating the shale out of each other. Cool!”

Simply put, this is as good-looking of a film as you’ll find this year or any other for that matter and it is accompanied by a music score by Alexandre Desplat (2006′s The Queen) that is more than suitable for the genre.