Booksmart - 2019
Updated: Oct 14, 2022
Awhile back there came along a director and a group of actors who together churned out a series of hilarious, raunchy, whipsmart, over the top comedies. Judd Apatow may not be the man solely responsible for these longer running, more situational, true to life comedies that replaced the slapstick fare of old. But he is certainly one of the patron saints, and two of his band of misfits, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, starred in a rather memorable coming-of-age tale. Superbad, while surely not for everyone, hit closer to home than many cared to admit. A story about two senior nerds trying to go out of high school with a bang, in search of booze and encountering all sorts of misadventures in the quest, Superbad had a premium of guffaws. Yet, it also housed a more inward tale of fear in the possible loss of friendship and carefree innocence that comes at the cusp of adulthood.
Well, 12 years later, Olivia Wilde looked out across the comic landscape and took a bold and confident step. She would, she decided, re-make a kind of Superbad, only with GIRLS. Super-smart girls, in fact, who had never done anything wrong a single day in high school. Realizing this on the eve of graduation, Beanie Feldstein and Kaityln Dever set out to shove four years of carousing into one eventful night. The film is positively hilarious in moments and downright emotional in others. While the sheer raucous laughter of its predecessor may be absent, I think Wilde does better on two counts. For one, the dialogue between these girls at the edge of huge personal transitions is deeper, more self-aware, and brings the hidden aspects of their fears to the surface. But, beyond this Booksmart should be lauded for the way nearly every single character, leads and hysterical bit actors alike, transcend the flat and false perceptions of them so common in these types of coming-of-age tales. In the end, it's as if Olivia said, "I'll see your work, Judd. And I'll raise you this." We're all lucky she strode so confidently.
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