Booksmart

Booksmart is wise about a lot of things, but one of its wisest traits is how it can surprise us.  There's a great scene early in the movie where a high school honors student, bound for Yale in the fall, decides to mouth off against the people who have been making fun of her for as far back as she can remember.  In her tirade, she verbally paints a bleak picture for the future of the three burnout teens who have spent all of their time partying, while she has devoted her life to studying.  It's a classic bit of a "Revenge of the Nerd" moment, where the girl who never fit in finally puts her tormentors in their place.

But then, the movie surprises us by not having the scene end with the honor student walking out victorious.  The response that the tormentors have is logical, and perhaps devastating, especially to the honors student who felt she had finally gotten the upper hand with these kids for the first time in her young life.  It's an early hint that Booksmart is going to be a lot better than your average coming of age teen comedy.  Fortunately, the rest of the movie never once betrays the promise set by this early scene, and continued to surprise me.  In her directorial debut, actress Olivia Wilde shows a lot of sharp humor and keen insight.  She has also brought along two wonderful young leads in Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein, playing life-long best friends trying to cut loose for the first time.

In all honesty, there's not much in the structure of the script that you haven't seen in a dozen other teen comedies.  There's the out-of-control end of school party, there's the weird, awkward teens, there's the dumb jocks, the catty mean girl, the clueless parents, and the unobtainable crush that one of the main characters has.  But what this movie does is use these elements smartly, and with some blindingly funny observations.  For example, we know at some point during the night of partying, that the two lead girls will somehow take drugs without knowing.  It's pretty much a required pit stop in any and every teen party movie.  So, yes, it happens here, and we get ready for the hallucinogenic sequence to come.  And it does, but again, not in the way you would expect.  The movie throws in a wildly inventive and hilarious sequence that's too good to spoil here, though sadly, the film's trailer does include a very brief glimpse of it.  This is a movie that plays by the rules, but keeps on finding ways to reinvent them that are smart and funny.

The two friends at the center of it all are Molly (Feldstein) and Amy (Dever).  Molly is extremely focused, confident, and in control.  Amy is just as much so, but in a less brash sort of way.  They have both spent the past four years achieving academic perfection, casting aside all distractions, such as partying and their social lives.  Their idea of a slumber party is watching a Ken Burns documentary together.  Now as high school is ending, Molly is headed for Yale in the fall, while Amy plans to spend the summer doing volunteer work in Africa, before heading off for Columbia University.  It's only on the last day of school that the girls realize that other kids who have spent their whole high school years partying and getting drunk have gotten into those same schools by doing much less work.

So, Molly figures, they need to fit four years worth of partying into one big night.  The structure of the film is rather loose, with the girls going from one comic situation after another, such as crashing a very sad yacht party, to a disastrous run in with a pizza delivery driver.  Again, I know this all sounds routine, but the script (credited to four different writers) is constantly throwing in moments and lines of dialogue that are truly funny, and Wilde throws in quite a few original stylistic choices.  She is confident in her direction, and wants to throw her hat into the ring to show that she has what it takes.  She shows wonderful pacing, and a talent for getting the best out of her actors.  The movie keeps on going one step further than we expect, especially when it comes to adding unexpected layers to characters we think we know, such as the obnoxious rich kid, or the mean girl.

Booksmart also never forgets that it is essentially a very silly and raucous movie, and it has a lot of fun with its jokes involving subjects like lesbian porn, and vomiting at the worst possible moment.  This is not a gross movie, mind you.  It simply embraces its inherently raunchy nature.  But, it also has a very big heart behind it.  The movie makes sure that we like these characters, even at their worse, and it gives many of the characters (not just the lead girls) some quiet and reflective moments when necessary.  It's a delicate balancing act for sure, juggling sleaze and heart, but the movie pulls it off.  The heart of the film is strong, thanks to the performances of Feldstein and Dever, who create a genuine chemistry that makes me want to see them play friends again in another movie.

Booksmart is the most honest teen film I have seen since Love, Simon.  It's hilariously funny, knows how to surprise its audience, and gives us a lot of moments that both teens and adults (who remember what it was like back then) can relate to.  I have a feeling it's going to get lost in the Memorial Day Weekend shuffle, but it's the kind of film that's bound to have a long life when it comes home.

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