Booksmart is a hilarious coming of age teen comedy about two best friends who have an epiphany that they worked too hard in high school to the detriment of fully enjoying life so they try to make up for it during their last night as high school seniors. Olivia Wilde, better known for her work as an actor, made her feature length directorial debut and may have the funniest outlook on high school since Savage Steve Holland, director of Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer.
Booksmart is the kind of movie that I wanted to rewatch immediately after watching it then I wanted to watch it again when it was available for home viewing with the subtitles on because I’m sure that I missed a ton of jokes the first time around. Normally when I see a movie, I’m watching it two ways: as someone who wants to have fun and with my analytical mind, but there was no time to think, just receive and respond. I’m a party pooper, and one movie trope that I despise is when someone gets drugged without explicit consent then it is played for laughs. It works here. It was hilarious. I’ll sign the waiver, but only this time.
While Booksmart fits certain tropes, it was impossible to fully predict what was about to happen even though I saw the previews a ton of times so I anticipated a handful of moments. I kept checking my watch because when something happened that would normally be a scene that would appear at the end of a movie, there would still be a considerable amount of time left. It starts off really aggressive then goes into completely bananas strange standalone sequences that could be a full movie until it gives way to a bittersweet moment of gratitude and loss that just when you begin to appreciate someone, your time with them is over, and it is time to move on. There are some missed moments that can’t ever happen because life unfolds when you’re not looking. It is lesson that hits long after the movie ends. Sure it is in many ways an over the top fantasy of the high school experience, but it also manages to subtly sneak in some mature life lessons that all of us need long after high school. There are also plenty of uncomfortable moments that resonate with genuine pain and hurt that make time stand still.
In retrospect, Booksmart felt like a homage to all the characters that you took for granted and allows each character, no matter how tertiary, a moment to shine and dispel the first impression, the one-dimensional judgment and permitted a glimpse at the full lives of not just our two protagonists, but every person that appears on screen. Everyone lives full lives, but it is impossible to fully experience that person because you’re only living your life so it gently rebukes every character for the quick assessment and asks the characters and the viewers to push a little deeper. If my church had a slogan, it would be go to the party, stop living in your head and start celebrating with people and being a part of your community instead of judging them. The mark of a good movie is when you don’t relate to a single character, but an aspect of all the characters.
Booksmart’s cast is phenomenal. It has some brand names in comedy that do not disappoint: Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis (the director’s husband), Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte and Maya Rudolph. I loved Billie Lourd since Scream Queens when I had no idea who her mom was (Carrie Fisher). She is a comedic, deadpan, unhinged genius, and every time she appeared, I howled, and I’m thrilled that more people are picking up what she is laying down. If one of the protagonist’s seems familiar, she is. Beanie Feldstein who plays Molly was the best friend of the titular character in Lady Bird. She plays a completely different type of person in this film, and she shines.
Booksmart also features a lot of great actors who should be household names if we lived in a meritocracy. I’m less familiar with Kaitlyn Dever, whom I apparently have seen in a ton of things, but don’t remember so apparently she is a chameleon: Modern Family, J Edgar, The Spectacular Now, Short Term, Laggies, Detroit. Noah Galvin and Austin Crute steal every scene as the theater lovers in the school. Skyler Gisondo needs to do a genetic marker test because he looks like Jackie Chan, specifically when he smiles. I could not get over it. If I had to pick a favorite though, it is probably Michael Patrick O’Brien, who usually stays behind the camera as a writer, as the pizza delivery guy. It was probably the funniest sequence in the movie, and I would watch a whole comedy around O’Brien’s character. My second favorite scene is when the protagonists go to the library.
If the movie does get criticism, it will probably be for the use of Malala’s name and one character’s gap year goal. I could see someone saying that privileged people are using people of color’s lives as an accessory to theirs. I would counter that high school girls can be quite earnest, but blissfully unaware of how their sincere admiration and efforts can look to someone on the receiving end so it worked for me while also making me cringe ever so slightly. Also not one high school female student was Asian or a woman of color. Maybe there was an extra, but I really don’t think so.
Wilde should be really proud of herself. A lot of actors try to make the transition to working behind the screen, and never get it right, but she not only knocked it out of the park her first time, but she had a unique, engaging style in a genre that allows no room for error if there are missteps. I would even say that if it weren’t a comedy successfully subverting tropes to keep it grounded in reality, I would take it more seriously and say it is the strongest movie of the year for having a distinct voice that isn’t a sequel or by a well-established director. I’m going to revisit and reassess my thoughts on this film to give it a fair shake, but it is definitely a strong contender and a leader of the pack.
Booksmart is the Christmas Carol of high school comedies, and I adored it. The theater was packed and howling the entire time. I hope that Wilde keeps directing feature length films, and I plan to keep seeing her films in the theater with the hope that lightning strikes twice.
