Directed by:
Olivia WildeCinematography:
Jason McCormickComposer:
Daniel NakamuraCast:
Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Lisa Kudrow, Skyler Gisondo, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Molly Gordon, Eduardo Franco, Jessica Williams (more)VOD (2)
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Told from a wildly original, fresh and modern perspective, Booksmart is an unfiltered comedy about high school friendships and the bonds we create that last a lifetime. Capturing the spirit of our times, the film is a coming of age story for a new generation. (South by Southwest Film Festival)
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Reviews (8)
In terms of direction, it’s flawless and with an entertaining style, it’s also genre subversive and always ready to drop a well-worn motif with a self-aware, ironic joke. Both female leads are likeable and I didn’t even mind that one of them had to be chubby and the other a homosexual nerd, because this is in fact about the erasure of differences in adolescence. And yet, I can’t get rid of the aftertaste of a cynically calculated ending and the reluctance to break out more markedly from the long established viewer submissiveness of the genre that the creators try to undermine (and very successfully so during two thirds of the film). I lost interest after the argument at the party and only stayed for the climax before the entire school because I had to. Though Lady Bird and Eighth Grade were more personal and psychologically candid, Booksmart is also an inspiring film for its target audience and has a more than satisfactory creative level for any fan of movies. 70%
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Not long after Greta Gerwig, another American actress associated with mumblecore, Olivia Wilde, demonstrated her directorial talent. In their debuts, which were patterned on films in which they had previously acted, both directors offer a humorous, sincere and casual look at a girl’s coming of age. While Gerwig's Lady Bird was an unpretentious, unsentimental indie comedy, Booksmart offers a less introspective and more stylised, though equally truthful portrayal of the uncertainty and concerns of women at the threshold of adulthood. At the same time, this humorous, clever, fresh and confidently directed generational film is a timeless indictment of pigeonholes and pigeonholing that is informed by, among other things, earlier high-school comedies. 85%
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The sexy Olivia Wilde makes her comedy debut with what could be described as a modern-day chick flick for women, and it's very refreshing. For a teen comedy, the film is very creative in terms of ideas, strange not-so-typical characters for the genre, decent dialogue, decent acting, and for the most part, it manages to avoid the typical cliché and fleshes things out beautifully. In terms of the humour, it could have been funnier, but it's still great fun and a pleasant surprise.
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It is true that the director Olivia Wilde is good in many aspects. Considering the premise of this movie, she as a director passed with flying colors. The actresses are good as well and the whole movie has this American high school comedies feel. Without the gender drivel and one boy, who, if he wasn’t trying to get the black girl I would think was a girl, I would rate it with more stars. But the American pop culture sets a clear trend, and therefore I have a feeling that American high-schoolers don’t concern themselves with anything else than LGBT and gender movement. And also, Czech distributors could really have used a different title than this one which literally means ‘Bookworm girls want it too’. The title makes the movie look worse than it actually is.
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As happy as I am that Olivia Wilde has resuscitated the true 1998-2009 teen comedy (and not the al-too-common adult take on a changing teen masquerading as a teen movie), I can't rate this film except by comparing it to Mottola's Superbad. Here, too, the quiet Asterix and the vulgar and expressive Obelix go to their high school's last party, which may be the last chance for them to experience anything together, given that the Sword of Damocles of impending adulthood is looming over them both. And they, too, must earn their presence there, but the reward hanging in the air is once again the ultimate inter… vention in their hitherto untouched love lives. Although they don't achieve the greatness of their forebear (which nowadays I don't think is even possible), they deserve a huge thanks for waking this hibernating genre, not to mention that at most points it works the way it should. It's funny, you root for the characters even though they actually piss you off, and when it comes to the first hints, the subtle touches, the hiding under the surface of the pool, and the karaoke, you'll be seventeen again (unless you're already completely sealed in the fat of adulthood). The timing for the mos part isn't perfect, the script occasionally goes out of its way just to have an arc, and the effort to find my Emma Stone in the cast of supporting characters was rewarded with no more than her distant soulmate Gigi, but I'm glad the girls finally got a good teen comedy, a genre that didn't include them at all during its heyday, and instead dumped the weighty and fatalistic responsibilities of Young Adult films onto their shoulders, while boys could jump straight from the teen genre onto the superhero train headed to outer space and beyond, which they can follow to their deaths.
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