Booksmart

Such a great feel-good film. Kaitlyn Dever & Beanie Feldstein DELIVER comedy gold. You are immediately invested in their friendship and want them to achieve their goals of having a fun night before they head off to college. Olivia Wilde smashed it with this film. I did not lose interest or get bored the entire movie, and I eagerly await her next project.

Of course, as usual the ten-star advance "user reviews" here are from people who "mysteriously" have never written an IMBD review before--i.e. studio shills. But "Booksmart" has gotten great early reviews, and several people I know who saw early screenings really did love it. So I went in fully expecting to enjoy it, and was dismayed when immediately--I mean, even before the opening title--the film was making "Funny, huh? Wasn't that funny?!?" noises despite nothing particularly funny happening. I'll give Olivia Wilde points for making a very colorful and energetic movie that might indeed convince a lot of people through sheer high spirits that it's a great comedy. But instead it felt just strenuous to me, trying too hard to cover the fact that the funny, clever, witty material wasn't actually there.

The premise is ridiculous--bookworm protagonists are horrified to discover that after all their sacrifices for the future, all the party-hearty types at their high school ALSO got into Ivy League schools. This would make sense if it took place in a wealthy community where everyone was a "legacy" student thanks for their family's donations. But the movie makes a point of singling out two characters as the only "truly rich" ones here. Those two, like every character save the two lead girls, are complete "SNL"-style caricatures. What's worse, they all also seem to be played by actors who are about a decade too old, once again apart from the two lead girls.

Even so, the premise and the casting and everything might have worked if "Booksmart" were an outright farce. But it seems to be aiming to be sorta-kinda "real," while the characters nonetheless behave like no teenagers past or present. Everything here is so over-amped and contrived for effect, yet the ingenious comedy situations and bright lines that approach might have served are nowhere to be found.

Like I said, I don't get it--it's a very lively and well-crafted movie that nonetheless felt completely phony and unfunny to be. It's not boring, but I have no idea what people who like it are responding to, beyond the fact that "'Superbad' for high school senior girls" is probably good enough for many. But I liked "Superbad" well enough, and this movie just did nothing for me. You could say it aims for a mix of "Superbad" and John Hughes, but those movies do a much better job turning recognizable teenage life into farce with some heart, and if Wilde intended something similar (I'm not sure what she intended, beyond punching across every scene as if she might never be allowed to direct again), she misses the mark. A for effort, C for derivative/uninspired content, and D for over-effortfully trying to hide that empty content. It's like a student paper with a very splashy cover but nothing original or thoughtful inside.

Overall, this is an incredibly enjoyable, incredibly well executed film that is getting just a bit overhyped. I would absolutely recommend this movie; I think Olivia Wilde, Kaityln Dever, and Beanie Feldstein all have some promising careers ahead of them, and I can't wait to see what comes next from all of them. For our full review of Booksmart and hundreds of other reviews, articles, and podcast episodes visit True Myth Media!

Ok so after watching it and reading a lot of reviews, I can see why everybody is so divided on this movie.

First of all; it's not a very original idea and it is indeed hard not to make the "Super Bad" comparison. But at the same time, it is a genre movie and I think we can all establish that "Non-popular kids that want to go to a party but run into various obstacles along the way that interfere with them going to the party" is a pretty strong genre on itself nowadays.

Also, this is Olivia Wilde's directorial debut and obviously it shows throughout the movie. The script is far from perfect and because of that, some sections in the movie felt a bit too long and/or unnecessary. But then again, directing is an art and you don't master it when you are making your first film.

People also said that they found it disappointing that the movie was shot in such a commercial way, meaning they would rather see the movie be more like "Lady Bird" or "Dazed and Confused". And while I get why people would like that (it would certainly be interesting to see how Olivia would approach that kind of movie). I also really like the fact that she didn't choose that route and gave it a more commercial feel. Cause this way she could spread the message to a bigger audience as well as paying kind of a homage to this type of genre movie's that also has a more commercial feel.

And talking about the message in this movie. Here's where I think it really shines and why it was also a highly enjoyable movie. I found that the characters were all really refreshing. Everybody had their own thing going on so off course nobody liked each other but I didn't get the feeling that anybody in the movie was really bullied. Even in the bathroom scene, where Molly is on the toilet overhearing a conversation about herself, the two guys also said some negative things about her because of her some personal traits she possesses but they also said a lot of positive things and it didn't feel like they said all those things just to be bullies.

The main philosophy of this movie I also find very interesting. So these two girls behaved themselves all through high school so they could get into the best colleges only to find out that everybody who they though only partied all year and were interested in anything but school, also got into those colleges. Now, this may not look like a big massage but how many people from high school don't we know that live there lives exactly like that, basically missing out on all these great life experiences. For them, this is a pretty big message I take. And in this day and age, where most of our social contact moments are on a phone screen, a welcome one.

Now can I also say that it was very refreshing to see a movie that featured the lgbtq+ so casually (like it is in real life I might at). Lots of characters were gay or floating in between, and it was just there. For me, the way it was portraited felt very much like my surroundings. It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't a search for answers about the character's sexuality like how a lot of movies would approach it when integrating this subject. And if you're a white male (like myself) and you're thinking to yourself right now "why does everything have to be about lgbtq+ nowadays?". Its because we have already seen all the movies about the white male protagonist from every angle and philosophy imaginable and frankly we all grew a little bit tired of it, That's why!

And there are smaller clever things in "Booksmart", like the big fight scene with was very well shot. Also, wacky scenery moments that pulled the viewer out of reality for a second added a kind of surrealistic aspect to the movie.

So all things considered: I really enjoyed this movie! Was it a masterpiece for cinema, no I don't think so. Does that matter? Not at all. Cause you can tell that this movie did what Olivia was set out to do; Make a fun movie to inspire highschool students and implement some fresh and interesting ideas to a genre we all grew up with and love. In our time we had "Super Bad" Let these kids have there "Booksmart".

The film does pick up in its 2nd half but by that time I built up too much hatred for it. It's noisy, characters are annoying plus a full deck of cliche's. I usually like critically acclaimed films but this, nah. Very disappointed... Many may like this film, I just wish I was one of them