Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is being compared to many films. Superbad and Bridesmaids just to name a few. I feel that no comparison gives this film any justice. Booksmart is it's own thing, and it's a pretty damn good thing. A brand-new classic hang-out movie. Whip smart, really funny and endearing. This is Olivia Wilde's directorial debut. I have one word of advice for you, Olivia. Please keep making movies.

Booksmart is about senior year of high school, and the two most unlikely party crashers, Molly and Amy. Both overachieve in academics and passionately wear their progressive political hearts on their sleeves. They think they have it so good, until they realize that everyone else around them partied just as hard as they studied. The shocking realization sets in that they may have wasted four years of high school by being "not-fun". Even worse, it's the last day of school and graduation is tomorrow. Molly and Amy form a pact, that on this night, they party as hard as they can before graduation to prove to the world that they can get down as hard as the rest of the class.

Chaos ensues. A wild night filled with memories they will never forget, if those memories include robbing a Pizza boy who happens to be a serial killer on the run, and tripping balls on drugged up strawberries resulting in a bad trip where the girls turn into Barbie dolls. No joke is too overdone, or too gross, or too raunchy. But theres too many of them to count. Booksmart throws so many ideas at the wall, and all of them stick. Why does it all work so well? Well, not only do we have a naturally gifted director in Olivia Wilde (given her mother, could be genetics) and an ingeniously clever script written by four brilliant ladies, but also because the entire array of characters, every last one of them, are three dimensional and fully realized in their own special ways. I fell in love with all of them. The privileged rich kid with a heart of gold, the flirty young teacher, Amy's dorky parents, the pseudo-hipster principal (Sudeikis), the Drama school power couple, and so many more. All are familiar people you might know, and thankfully, none of them are sidelined or relegated to simple cheap shots or stereotypes. Wilde treats them all as equals, and has affection for them. They all bring Booksmart together, within a wonderful, goofy universe that ultimately teaches our two main characters to not be so judgmental and uptight. In the end, Molly and Amy find the healthy balance between hard work and good fun, and all the while, spending time with people they thought they were too good for. Booksmart's moral is quite simple. Loosen up. Guaranteed, it will loosen you up.