Booksmart is the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde and, if I were to speak for myself then, she nails it. After years of working in front of the camera, she leaps behind the camera to tell an effortless story of two burgeoning female best friends graduating high school.
Much like the classic cult movies of young adults such as Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, Clueless, Easy A and so on, Booksmart has all it takes to join the lot. It is fun, hilarious, reflective and unapologetically inclusive.
The plot of the movie revolves around Amy, Molly and their friendship as they are introduced as prodigious students who will be attending Ivy League schools after graduating from their high school. In their hearts they believed that they were intellectually superior to their classmates so they unconcernedly dissed their classmates among themselves. They however were shaken to the core when they realized that a majority of their classmates would be attending Ivy Leagues as well. Their belief of superiority stemmed from the fact that they never partied and they worked hard by prioritizing school over the other elements of their lives. They believed they earned Ivy Leagues for themselves as opposed to their classmates who took their education for granted.
When their delusion was broken, they went on a mission to attend the final ‘wild’ party before graduation. Their journey towards the party was an adventure itself. During the party they went on to discover themselves more independently which in turn caused them to have a major fight. Amy even managed to get arrested by the end of the night until Molly came to her rescue and the two of them rode towards their graduation.
In her interview with TODAY, Wilde states being happy because she could tell a story about intelligent women who know their own self-worth. As a director she refused to subdue the passion the female leads showcased. Wilde wanted the movie to be flamboyant, endearing and important. As a director, Wilde’s vision and perspective is as audacious as her personality. Another key component of the movie is its exploration of the various assortments and female friendships and it is safe to say that a male director could not have pulled off the array of easy female friendships so ordinarily.
The movie represents all the contemporary elements matter-of-factly without wasting breath on creating dialogues surrounding changes that were not as prevalent in the past. The second protagonist Amy played by Kaitlyn Dever is homosexual and that fact itself is reflective of representation of diversity throughout the movie.
The movie begins with the two best friends Amy and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) greeting each other early in the morning by dancing. In the aforementioned interview, Olivia Wilde mentions in relation to their greeting: “that came from the girls, that’s how they greeted each other every morning and I said well that’s it, that’s the beginning of the movie now.” Wilde also had Dever and Feldstein live together before and during filming just so they could bring about the camaraderie of best friends that experienced growing up together.
The point in the movie where Molly overhears her classmates in the washroom demeaning her, is pivotal because Molly is seen initially as a victim defending herself against her ‘bullies’ only to feel perplexed when the said bullies reveal that they would be attending Ivy schools alongside her.
In that scenario Molly is also seen as a bully because she never imagined that her rowdy classmates would ever be able to attend Ivy League schools.
The movie does not have the conventional good versus bad trope instead the layers within the characters are explored, the secondary characters shine brightly as well.
Every frame of the movie is bright and captivating. The scene where Amy and Molly drunkenly imagines themselves as barbies is hilarious and unique in style. The songs throughout the movie add necessary weights of their own. The costumes give weight to the characters. Jared’s costume for example is initially loud until it sobers up along with the revelation of the layers to his character. Characters like Alan, George and Gigi were treats as well although Gigi might have seemed irrelevant for the most part. Extra characters might have been added to represent various kinds of backstories which humanize them. The valedictorian speech by Molly is the relatable kind which goes on to state the obvious matter of keeping an open mind.
The screen was graced by big comedic actors such as Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis and they complement their positions efficiently albeit briefly. The movie was written to flesh out or humanize almost all the young adults in it. No one in Booksmart is a stereotype- they are just people, trying their best to get by. In a way, it represents how teenagers evolve as they grow up, as they realize that the world isn’t out to get them, and there are many things which they are wrong about, just like everyone else.
Booksmart has been a long time coming, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less appreciated.
It puts a new spin on the teen movie genre, and heralds the arrival of a new directorial voice, as well as two spirited actresses who thrive in portraying authentic characters. If you haven’t seen it yet, then do set aside some time to treat yourself to this film. You definitely won’t be disappointed.
