Booksmart is Fun (But Extremely Formulaic)
Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart is a fantastic directorial debut, a coming-of-age comedy that follows best friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) as they are finally graduating from High School. Amy and Molly are known to be “perfect” students, but other classmates project stereotypes as they think that, because they focused on their grades too much, they have “diplomas in their vaginas” (LMAO) and can’t be fun. Molly has had enough of these perpetuating stereotypes and decides to spend the night before graduation partying and having the time of their lives. What ensues are fantastic bits of comedy, but a formulaic structure that is too familiar.
There’s a lot to like in Booksmart and I’ll start with that. Every situation that Amy and Molly land themselves in is a mini-adventure and each mini-adventure is as fun as the last mini-adventure. The best bit is when they call a Lyft and their driver is their school principal (Jason Sudeikis). He thinks they’re listening to music together on their phone, so he puts it on the car and they were actually watching porn. The principal, however, think’s it’s Cardi B. Brilliant. All of the characters are incredibly colorful and interesting, particularly Billie Lourd’s Gigi who gives the best performance of the entire film. I’ve never seen Billie Lourd so good in anything (except I would say her OK performances in the Star Wars franchise) than her performance as Gigi in Booksmart. Every scene she’s in is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Her character [literally] comes out of nowhere and, yet, everytime she is on screen she steals every inch of it, even with the Golden-Globe nominated performance of Beanie Feldstein. Feldstein is great and is deserving of some recognition for her fantastic performance. The best scene involving her is the confrontation she has with Amy, truly showcasing her acting talents. The writing in that particular sequence is phenomenal and the dramatic side of the characters stand out fantastically.
It’s in that sequence that Booksmart elevates from following a pretty formulaic structure and the rudiments of any coming-of-age comedy to something particularly frightening that made the entire viewing experience stand out more. In that particular scene, Molly’s egotism is revealed, something that was very subtle beforehand, until she lashes out at Amy’s plans to steer clear away from Molly. Molly has planned ahead, and when I mean planned ahead, she’s mapped her entire life already and forcefully brought Amy with her as well. I’ve said in my podcast that those that plan the rest of their lives ahead will have a rude awakening. Molly doesn’t want to accept the rude awakening that Amy wants to live HER life by following her impulses and taking a gap-year. As the great Tommy Wiseau once said “Don’t plan too much, it may not come out right!” But he’s right. Tommy Wiseau is quite the WISE one. If you plan ahead, as they did for their entire high school year, they will not be able to “live a little” and live life by the second, instead of worrying about years and situations that might not even happen according to plan. Look at Hillary Clinton…look at Andrew Scheer…they planned ahead that they were going to win their respective elections, and lost badly. Planning ahead is a sign of weakness…never, NEVER plan ahead.
Booksmart’s commentary on planning ahead adds an extra layer to the incredibly formulaic script and paint-by-numbers structure of a coming-of-age comedy. Thankfully, the comedic situations in this movie are laugh-out-loud hilarious and the lead performances from Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are terrific. Olivia Wilde’s directing style is highly energetic, with a rousing soundtrack and a brilliant use of slow-motion that makes the film’s editing dynamically kinetic. It’s one of the most original comedies of the year, but not the best comedy of the year, due to its ability to not break away from the formulaic structure of the coming-of-age comedies. Thankfully, there are some instances of creativity, such as the “Strawberry drug trip” sequence, with stop-motion animation that tries to break its formulaic structure, but its rudimentary script can’t do so, because it has to rely on that exact structure to appease to coming-of-age fans and deliver something that people are familiar with. Thank God most of the jokes are hilarious because OH BOY is this movie predictable.
✯✯✯✯
