Movie Reaction: Booksmart

Formula: Superbad / Ghost World

Booksmart is an irreverent R-rated teen coming-of-age comedy about co-dependent best friends at the end of high school realizing that they've never put themselves out there. They decide to go to their first high school party that night and get side-tracked along the way at other parties they probably shouldn't be at. They find themselves in cars or getting rides from fromer SNL cast members. When they finally reach the party, they split up to go after their high school crushes. They get in a big fight along the way and eventually make up when they realize how much their friendship means to them. The movies ends with a sad scene as they go their separate ways for the first real time. That party they end up at is broken up by the cops who publically arrest one of them. While they aren't popular by any means, the two friends come to realize that everyone else in their class isn't out to get them. The two friends are played by Beanie Feldstein (Jonah Hill's sister) - a bloviating alpha - and Kaitlyn Dever (a prolific child actor making her transition to more adult roles) - the meeker "side-kick" of the friendship with ambitions she doesn't often get to express. The movie is the result of a decade-old pet-project that the screenwriters have been trying to get made for years. And, of course, casting by Allison Jones.

Sound familiar?

Look, I'm going to make the Superbad comparison. I can't help it. Superbad is one of my favorite movies ever and there are too many similarities [for me] to ignore. The fact that I'm happily comparing Booksmart to Superbad though should tell you everything you need to know about how much I enjoyed this movie.

(Let's play a game called "which MPAA rating belongs to which movie?"

-Rated R for strong sexual content and language throughout, drug use and drinking - all involving teens

-Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image - all involving teens

I'd tell you the answer, but I already forgot.)

OK. I think I've got it all out of my system. That's the last I'm going to mention Superbad.

Booksmart is a very easy movie to love. I'm a sucker for high school comedies. Calling something "a coming -of-age story" is practically a cheat code to getting a favorable rating from me. All I really need is a couple good leads (Check), a supporting cast of familiar comedy faces (Check), maybe a breakout performance (Check), as many jokes as possible (Check), and a few moments with some heart (Check). This is Olivia Wilde's debut as a director. I never would've expected this kind of movie from her and it's a welcome surprise*. There are a couple times late when her direction gets in the way, but mostly she has an invisible touch that lets the actors and script take all the focus. I can't wait to see what she does next.

*Clarification: She isn't formally trained in comedy, the roles she's most associated with aren't in comedies, and, most importantly, it's unfair to expect a movie this  good out of any debut feature director.

This is a role that Beanie Feldstein has been building to for a while. She stole scenes in Neighbors 2 and Lady Bird. She's just as good here in a lead role. Like her brother, she's great at being loud and abrasive while still being likable. She's perhaps even more nuanced at it than him. I've only been aware of Kaitlyn Dever for about 2 years, but it turns out she's been in many, many movies that I've seen. While I know her best for a recurring role in Justified, her role as the best friend in Laggies a few years ago is how I knew she'd be great for this kind of comedy. She's also been on Last Man Standing for over 100 episodes. I don't watch or care much for that show, but it's a wealth of experience for her nonetheless at getting laughs from people. Feldstein and Dever are an exceptional duo. I'd happily see them in a dozen more comedies together. Their characters' friendship is codependent but not toxic. One of my favorite touches in the movie is when they get distracted complimenting each other. They are both the best friend we all wish we had in high school. It makes a lot of sense when I realize that one of the screenwriters of this also wrote The Spy Who Dumped Me and Life Partners: two movies that center on awesome female friendships.

I won't be able to touch on everyone in the cast. A lot of people are in this, and in many cases, the screenplay does a great job fleshing them out in only a few scenes. Billie Lourd stole the show for me. She plays an over the top rich girl who fans of Scream Queens will immediately recognize, except she's even more exaggerated and likable in this role. There's also fine work from Jessica Williams as the girls' favorite teacher, Jason Sudeikis as the school principal, and Lisa Kudrow and Will Forte as Dever's awkwardly supportive parents.

It's taken Hollywood a while to figure high school dynamics out. The John Hughes version of high school cast a long shadow, well past the period when it rang true to modern audiences. A brain, an athelete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal isn't really right anymore. Several movies in recent years have attempted to capture the more current dynamics of high school. In particular 21 Jump Street tried to directly define them. Booksmart does a great job of this. All the characters are recognizable without fitting into neat boxes. There's very little judgment of the characters even though it uses them all for laughs.

The movie isn't perfect. I was a much bigger fan of the first 2/3s of the movie than the last 1/3. It has that problem that a lot of comedies have where the jokes slow down a lot late so it can focus on the plot. I'm all for giving a comedy some dramatic heft, but the very best comedies balance it better. The very end leans even more into wish fulfillment than a certain other 2007 comedy that I've promised not to name. These are very small concerns though.

I may need to see this again. The audience when I saw this sucked. I found myself laughing harder and more often than everyone else, and it really messed with my perception of some of the jokes. While the movie is consistently funny, I feel like it lacked a couple big comedic centerpieces. There weren't any scenes where the jokes built and built until I was struggling to keep up with the laughs. Comedy is infectious though. Maybe with a better audience, my perception of that would be different.

I refuse to end on a sour note like that though. Already, I'm making the kind of nit-picks to determine where in the top tier of movies I've seen that Booksmart belongs. So, let me be clear. Booksmart is certain to be toward the top of my year-end list of movies. It's the first movie of the year that I'm certain to watch again, buy the Bluray, and look for an excuse to quote it. I love how the screenplay is both thoughtful and funny. I love the two leads and everyone they interact with. It's a crowd pleasing movie that more people should be seeing.

On Last Thought: I'm genuinely surprised by the low box office numbers for Booksmart. It opened with only $6 million this weekend. That's low. Just last year Blockers, managed a $20 million opening despite coming out in April. 12 years ago Superbad opened at $33 million. Hell, The Duff from 2015 even made $10 million on its opening weekend.

Here's my best guess why it opened so low: Maybe the reviews were too good? The way it was advertised, did people think it wasn't a pure comedy? Because its opening numbers look a lot more like The Edge of Seventeen's ($4 million) or Dope's ($6 million). Movie like Eighth Grade, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, and Lady Bird are a little different since they started as limited releases, but they never had weekends bigger than Booksmart's. I mean, yes, Booksmart has some heart to it, but that movie is mostly just a really funny comedy; the kind of comedy that should open bigger. I'm curious to see how the narrative develops over the next few weeks for Booksmart. Someone is bound to dig a little deeper into it. This is not the beginning I expected for it.

  

Verdict: Strongly Recommend