BOOKSMART – Review

You don’t have to be a genius to get through high school and into a great college. There’s not a specific mold one has to fit into to advance in life. Smarties can be losers, stoners can excel, and jocks aren’t always jerks. BOOKSMART presents these labels and more, and just as quickly, shows off how in 2019, the John Hughes 80s-movie stereotypes don’t apply. And much like actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde, you can defy the expectations set out for you.

Olivia Wilde directs a raunchy comedy from the modern, high-school girl perspective in the spirit of SUPERBAD and CAN’T HARDLY WAIT with a healthy dose of BROAD CITY thrown in. Despite the unoriginal premise of the “final party before high-school ends,” the screenwriters (a team of four talented women) prove that you don’t need an original concept when you’re making a clever and laugh-out-loud statement about stereotypes and high-school tropes. You just have to beat them at their own game. And between Wilde’s carefree confidence behind the camera and the writing team’s admiration for the characters, it’s no wonder that BOOKSMART is one of the best high school stories put on screen.

Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and her best friend, Molly (Beanie Feldstein), are ready to move on to two of the top schools in the country. While their intentions may be good, their elitist attitude towards this achievement quickly vanishes when they learn all of their classmates are also going to top schools despite what their appearance and weekend partying may signify. This leads the duo to prove that they are also brainy and fun, like the rest of her classmates. There’s just one catch: they need to figure out where’s the big house party that takes place the night before graduation.

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein lead this comedic freight-train that barely takes a minute to breathe through the breezy 97 min runtime. Their presence on screen and the love they extend to the characters make the constant jokes feel much more natural than it sounds. The two have dynamic and infectious chemistry that you feel in every scene, leading to one of my favorite comedic duos in recent memory.

More than most high-school films, the supporting characters are just as important (even a throwaway character is the crux to the entire conclusion of the film). These characters accentuate the themes and aren’t just roadblocks in the way of our leads’ end goal. In fact, many of them have just as strong arcs by the end of it. Billie Lourd is fantastic, playing a Puck-like character (one of a few Shakespearean allusions in the film) that mysteriously pops up throughout the film for some off-kilter fun. But its the quirky bond between the strong, feminist duo that provides most of the heart and humor in the film.

While many films depict the lives of high schoolers as narcissistic, callous, and lacking any sense of what the “real world” is like, Olivia Wilde offers a softer and more sensitive lens to her characters. Their high school revelry, including trashing the hallways on the final day of school and rowdy late night parties, is depicted without judgment (albeit, with a strong knack for slo-mo flare set to some amazing pop songs). Unlike SUPERBAD and other high-school comedies, the struggles of the two leads aren’t trying to get booze or laid – they simply want to have their voices heard. In the end for Amy and Molly, it’s telling their respected crushes how they feel and also to prove a point to their classmates that they can have fun too. But it’s much bigger than that. As the feminist references and jokes throughout the film remind the audience, it’s making an enthusiastic statement at a time when it’s needed most. The two “nerds” at the center of the film don’t need to follow the rules to get through life, just as the woman at the helm of the film doesn’t have to stick to the book when it comes to teen comedies. And that’s what makes it smart.

Overall score: 4.5 out of 5

BOOKSMART opens in theaters May 24