Booksmart (2019)

Olivia Wilde makes her feature film directorial debut, after dabbling in the craft with a couple of music videos and short films, with Booksmart. It’s a daring and confident debut that will likely have many encourage the appealing actress to spend some more time behind the cameras.

Booksmart is, at its core, another high school comedy about misfit teens in the Los Angeles area trying to be cool, and ones who are the on the verge of going to college, or whatever lies in waiting beyond graduation day. Here, BFFs Molly and Amy have busted their tails off academically all through high school to set themselves up for post-graduation excellence, with Molly accepted to Yale and Amy going on a mission to help the poor in Africa. Their world gets rocked when they realize that the kids around them that looked like they just lived for partying are also going to similarly great colleges, or have lucrative careers waiting for them. Upset that they sacrificed all their fun for the same rewards, Molly and Amy decide to go out and have a blast and finally “break some rules” at the biggest house party in town for their last night before graduation.  However, they soon learn a few things about life, themselves, and one another, especially in how things don’t always go according to plan.

As you can probably tell from the synopsis, this is fairly standard fodder for high school comedies, which each generation seems to recycle since the 1980s.  However, this is one case where the uniqueness in the journey one takes is far more enjoyable than the familiar sights along the way.  Booksmart goes for lots of laughs with an impressive amount of zany energy that will likely keep viewers amused by the proceedings, even if there aren’t so many moments that inspire genuine guffaws.  I laughed all of two times at something in the movie (I doubt even the most stoic among us could refrain from erupting in laughter at the capper to the “watching porn in the taxi” sequence), but I never found the attempts at humor to overreach to the point where it breaks the illusion of believing in these situations.

Although the film would seem like the work of someone with a singular vision, the screenplay is credited to four writers: Katie Silberman (who wrote 2019’s clever ode to rom-coms in Isn’t It Romantic), Susanna Fogel (who directed and co-scripted the underappreciated 2018 buddy-comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me), and two veteran TV writers who frequently work together, Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, who had written the original screenplay before the other writers did rewrites.  While the premise they deliver is well-covered ground in American films, where they score the lion’s share of uniqueness is in the richness of characterizations, with no one on the screen seeming like they aren’t distinct and individual. This world of teenagers feels completely lived in, with a sense that all of these characters have known each other in a variety of capacities for many years.

Some might have a tendency to call Booksmart a female-led version of Superbad. While the two films share some similarities that make it easy to draw parallels, but Booksmart is sufficiently different in many respects to avoid being called a ripoff.  Molly and Amy aren’t awkward doofuses who are seen as generally uncool to the point where they aren’t invited to the best parties. The girls are almost the opposite, thinking themselves as too focused and determined to waste their time trying to just have fun and spend time with a bunch of fellow students going nowhere they plan to go in life (so they think).  If they’re not invited to a party, it’s because they’ve said, “No.” so many times they just aren’t asked any longer.  You also get the sense that Wilde truly loves her characters and wants them to be strong and confident, even if they may fail to achieve what they set out to do, unlike many teen comedies that merely set them up as complete failures at everything that somehow, by chance, get what they want in the end.

Some might say that Booksmart represents this generation’s Clueless as well, especially given the perceptible levels of affluence among the youth we do follow.  Perhaps that’s also apt, given that it has an innate ebullience that seems to own the moment it is made in, capturing the youth of 2019 the same way that Amy Heckerling did in the mid-1990s.  Certainly, given the social posture and belief system of the kids in Booksmart, this is a movie that could not have come out to represent any previous generation.  Although not ostentatious about it, the film does try to raise awareness about the next generation generally being more ‘woke’ than the last, embracing each other for differences that once used to mean being ostracized in high school. You can be cool and still be a nerd, and you can be from any ethnicity, gender, and come out to express your sexuality without need to fear from one’s peers.  It also celebrates being proud of who you are, and there’s no shame in having empowering role models you identify with, as the two lead characters are very proud of great women who’ve paved the way for other women to succeed in a world that hasn’t always been accepting.

Some of this feels a bit idealized. Jessica Williams’ character of Miss Fine steps right out of the assembly line of “cool teachers” that commonly exist in films like this to provide the proper guidance when needed in the absence of just about any other adult role model to be found. Between her, Amy’s parents preparing the most elaborate in-home graduation meal ever, principal played by Jason Sudeikis (Olivia Wilde’s real-life partner), and the pizza delivery guy, the adults in the film seem like the ones whose lives are passing them by.  As for the kids, it seems like they are already living the high life: murder mystery parties, yacht parties, and more are also not going to be readily identifiable for most people to experience. I live not far from where this film takes place and these seems more a connection to the already established Hollywood crowd of industry creators than it does coming from a bunch of teenagers just wanting a night to blow some last-minute steam. Still, in its favor, it’s also not a movie trying for realism, as evidenced by an extended stop-motion animation sequence in which the two main characters have experienced drugs for the first time and imagine themselves to have turned into plastic dolls, making for one of the most memorable scenes in the film.

I’d be remiss in my assessment of Booksmart to not give praise to the actors involved, especially Feldstein and Dever for jumping headfirst into their roles and making them extremely likable and three-dimensional. Their chemistry is palpable, and the kind of fun connections they share that would make them entertaining to observe no matter what they may be trying to do in life.  And yet, when there is a conflict between them, it feels real, and when things boil over, it is earned because we sense that they’ve been living with each other’s annoyances for a very long time for the sake of keeping peace in the friendship. TO make sure they felt like they knew each other, Wilde had the two actresses live together for about ten weeks and do everything together, so they would naturally feel comfortable with one another the way that best friends might.

The rest of the character actors are very nicely cast as well, with none of them seeming like they aren’t well thought out in terms of personality, even if they aren’t getting as much screen time to show many facets beyond what’s needed for each scene.  Nevertheless, what does come out through the course of all of these side characters is that nothing is truly what it might seem from just outward appearances. Interesting that the two characters are the ones who are “book smart” yet have to learn, sometimes the hard way, that they shouldn’t be so quick to judge a book by its cover.

Booksmart, like its main characters, is bold, brash, intelligent, confident, unapologetic, offbeat and full of interesting things to say.  It may not deliver as many laughs it may be trying to achieve, and it might be a little too frenetic in its energy level for some to be able to enjoy, but it has more than its share of refreshing moments to make it one worth seeking out for a fun time celebrating the next generation, the so-called Generation Z, on the verge of busting out to the world to find themselves. The world does seem a better place with anyone who might resemble Amy and Molly in it; perhaps they will be the next role models pinned to the wall of the next generation of girls that follows.

Qwipster’s rating: A-

MPAA Rated: R for strong sexual content and language throughout, drug use and drinking – all involving teens
Running Time: 102 min.

Cast: Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever, Skyler Gisondo, Jessica Williams, Noah Galvin, Mason Gooding, Jason Sudeikis, Billie Lourd, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Diana Silvers, Victoria Ruesga, Molly Gordon, Eduardo Franco, Nico Hiraga, Austin Crute, Mike O’Brien
Small role: Maya Rudolph (voice)
Director: Olivia Wilde
Screenplay: Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman