Booksmart: Review

After a weirdly dormant period, the teen film finally appears to be on an upswing. Netflix has revived the teen rom-com through titles like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, while new filmmakers have spotlighted teen characters in critically acclaimed hits such as Lady Bird and Eighth Grade. Now, like a shot of adrenaline, comes the whip-smart and immensely funny Booksmart – a comedy already scrawling its names in the history books as an all-time great addition to the genre.

Booksmart establishes itself as a shining representation of today’s generation

The film’s ‘end of high school’ setting is well-trod territory for the genre, but by cleverly updating the usual tropes and avoiding others all together, Booksmart establishes itself as a shining representation of today’s generation. At the film’s centre are Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), a pair of overachieving best friends dismayed to learn that their classmates were on track for the same colleges and bright futures as them, whilst still partying hard. The friends set out to pile four years’ worth of fun into the final night before graduation, breaking the rules they had spent their whole lives upholding.

First-time director Olivia Wilde is at ease constructing an exaggerated setting for her actors to run wild in. Molly and Amy move from one hilarious set-piece to the next, navigating a murder-mystery party, a stop-motion animated drug trip, and much more. Even the romance subplots are more energised, particularly through Amy, an awkward lesbian attempting to finally act on her attraction to another girl in the school. This kind of casual LGBTQ+ representation is a real breath of fresh air in the film, with Amy’s sexuality only being one facet of her layered character.

The film’s greatest asset is its sincerity

The film breaks away even further by having its most important couple be that of two female friends. Crushes come and go, but these girls are each other’s true ride or die. Feldstein and Dever’s electric, lived-in chemistry together is testament to this, as both bounce off each other in hilarious and memorable ways. The two have been bubbling rising stars for years, but this marks them as formidable talents, fully deserving of acclaim.

Also gone are the usual prominent high school tribes, making way for a fresh ensemble of cartoonish characters. Each is distinct from each other, bringing a unique and modern energy to the film’s universe. They range from the extra theatre-kid energy of Noah Galvin’s George to the manic absurdity of Billie Lourd’s rich girl, Gigi, the clear highlight who had me roaring each time she exploded into a scene. Through the initially judgemental eyes of Molly, these characters may seem one-dimensional – but it’s a testament to the strong writing and performances that they become multifaceted in their own right.

This all comes together to make Booksmart a joyous viewing experience, worthy of having compliments flung at it in the same way Molly and Amy do to each other

Indeed, the film’s greatest asset is its sincerity. Wilde challenges the one-sided images that Molly has constructed for her classmates and, as a result, grounds their absurdity into a more recognisable reality. It taps into the realities of why we stereotype people into groups in adolescence, understanding that people are more than the sum of their high school personas. The characters are given permission to burst out of their boxes, and thereby breaking out of the teen film tropes that have perhaps held the genre back recently. This all comes together to make Booksmart a joyous viewing experience, worthy of having compliments flung at it in the same way Molly and Amy do to each other. And I suspect it will for the considerable future.