Booksmarts (2019)

Booksmarts (2019)

7/10

Starring

Beanie Feldstein

Kaitlyn Dever

Directed by Olivia Wilde

Booksmarts is your regular coming-of-age comedy movie which has Olivia Wilde in her first film directorial debut. The movie is fun and its theme is basically, “live your best life while maintaining a balance between having fun and study/work”.

The movie centers around two friends who focused on being the best straight A students so they can get to the best colleges, only to discover that they were denying themselves the joy of being teenagers.

The movie for me is so much fun because of the power of the cast. The story is something you know, but the journey from the start to the finish for me was new. I enjoyed being part of a new script, even though the theme is something familiar.

This fast paced comedy starts with the introduction of two female friends, Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) who are high school seniors days away from graduation. Both of them are seen as pretentious by their peers and for good reasons too.

They focus so much on being the best in school, they avoid parties and recklessness. Even though inside they are just like the rest, they just choose to make school a priority and partying to be after school.

Amy seems to be much of a sidekick to Molly, Molly seems to be the driving force of their relationship. Amy is comfortable in her position in the relationship because she is not into partying and hanging out much. Amy has planed a gap-year of self-discovery planned as she will be going to Africa.

Amy is not straight and she is looking forward to her first sexual experience and currently has a crush on another girl in school.

When Molly finds out that the others in school who she believes are acting irresponsibly and will not get to good colleges, were actually getting into great colleges. Some going to colleges even better than hers. She flips out, telling Amy that they must do something crazy before they graduate.

To her whats the point. They have denied themselves all these years, and those who were having fun are going to the same colleges as they have so, they need to do something just like the others.

There was a party happening and even though they were not invited Molly wants them to go there. It was their journey to the party that makes this movie one of the best movies you should see.

The movie was both critically and commercially successful. Wilde for her first time directing, did a great job and the movie earned Feldstein a Best Actress nomination in Comedy or Musical at the 77th Golden Globe Awards. The movie also earned a lot of accolades and awards (with Wilde winning some for her directorial job).

Billie Lourd performance in this movie is worth seeing, her supporting performance in this movie is memorable. You should see this movie if you have not.