Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and Say Anything in the 80s. Dazed and Confused, Clueless, American Pie and 10 Things I Hate About You in the 90s. Juno and Superbad in the 2000s. The Spectacular Now, Perks of Being A Wallflower, Love, Simon and Lady Bird in the 2010s.
The plot of these high school comedies are all the same, but each has its own take. These come around every few years and each time I enjoy discovering the voice, the tone and the music of that generation's version. 2019 offers us Booksmart, directed by actress Olivia Wilde.
Besties Amy (Kaitlyn Dever from Beautiful Boy) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein from LIttle Bird) always assumed their focus on academia would give them a life-long advantage on their YOLO high school peers. You know, those party kids who will stay in town working at the local store and reminiscing about their glory days. However, on the eve of graduation, Amy and Molly discover those fun-loving kids are also moving on to Ivy-league schools. “You guys don’t even care about school,” shouts Molly, to which a popular girl retorts, “No, we just don’t only care about school.” This revelation is the comedic set up for Amy and Molly to pour four years of fun into one wild night, which includes crashing the cool kids' house party. Sounds good, right?
The first half of the film involves a series of mistakes and delays getting to the party, which includes introducing multiple over-the-top characters and raucous scenarios. I didn't enjoy the first half. My age is showing that I was sqirmingly antsy during all the misdirections and worried that our heroines would never actually get to crash that party.
Today I realized that I was just craving a grounded, realistic story (The girls accidentally take a drug that conveniently wears off just as soon as the comic bit was over) and realistic characters (a nerdy classmate throws a million dollar yacht party without any friends to join).
Luckily, this all changes in the second half of the film, where all those kooky characters and classmates meet. In a huge shift, the situation and the characters suddenly become realistic and layered, the stories all start to gel and everything works in that endearing way that the best of these movies do. I wish the whole film had been like the third act. It was so good that I'll have to recommend this film despite wanting to walk out early on.
In a nutshell: Like any true revenge of the nerd story, Booksmart wins over in the end.
Award potential: It had all the buzz at SXSW, but after seeing Eighth Grade get passed over last year, I'd say this zanier, uneven comedy has no chance for Oscar recognition.
A Golden Globe (Comedy) nomination is a long shot, but possible if Yesterday, Late Night or Once Upon A Time In Hollywood don't match expectations. The actresses are strong, but equal in their roles and unlikely to both make a nomination list half a year from now.
The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.
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