Booksmart movie review - Aussieboyreviews
COULD YOU REALLY CALL BOOKSMART THE FEMALE VERSION OF SUPERBAD?
Olivia Wilde’s high school buddy comedy is obnoxious, funny and well-made, but there are mixed thoughts on whether you could call it the female version of Superbad. There’s plenty of drinks, swearing and sex jokes in Booksmart.
Storyline
After discovering their classmates who partied and had fun in high school got into good colleges while they got into good colleges after working hard and studying, two friends decide to have as much fun and party as much as they can on the night before their graduation.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Olivia Wilde
Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Diana Silvers, Noah Galvin, Skyler Gisondo, Jason Sudeikis, Molly Gordon, Austin Crute, Eduardo Franco
Writer: Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman
Release Date (Australia): 27 June 2019
Runtime: 102 minutes/1h 42m
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
Language: English, Spanish, Mandarin
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film includes strong themes in the form of frequent crude humour.
A teenage girl slaps her friend across the face.
The film features frequent use of the word “f**k”.
The film features several verbal drug references and depictions of marijuana smoking, as well as a lengthy scene in which two teenage girls hallucinate after unknowingly taking a drug.
The film includes brief crude drawings of male genitalia.
The film features frequent crude verbal references to sexual acts, masturbation, pornography and includes a scene of sexual activity between two teenage girls.
mpaa rating
R (for strong sexual content and language throughout, drug use and drinking – all involving teens)
Aussie boy's thoughts
Olivia Wilde knows how to pull off the genre and from a fresh female perspective, it’s just that Booksmart is usually really predictable, clichéd and unoriginal. The thing that makes this film somewhat unique when compared to other naughty-humoured and foul-mouthed teen party/sex comedies is that the story is captured through the eyes of two young women, unlike how Superbad is on the male focus. But despite some fresh elements, this movie isn’t anywhere near as good as Superbad or other classics like it.
Booksmart stars in-their-20s actresses Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as two high school friends who decide to basically just let loose when they find out that other kids who didn’t take anything seriously like they did still got into good colleges. It’s the night before graduation and it’s just a movie featuring these two girls as they venture out trying to find the biggest party. The jokes work, the story certainly isn’t boring and there are some pretty awkward moments everyone can relate to, but it’s a pretty forgettable comedy that just isn’t capable of storing in a special place in our memories.
If you want to see talent, rest assured that this isn’t the type of comedy film where all the actors can just let loose and go without minds for while their on the screen, sure some minor roles probably can, but not the two leads. It really looks like Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are having fun together in this movie, but there’s also a very serious sequence that proves the maximums of their acting abilities. Olivia Wilde also shows she is another spectacular director, with each sequence being full of distinctive warmth.
On the other hand if you’re still watching Booksmart with a sense of logical thinking, which is pretty called for considering the dramas these two face throughout the film, the flaws are also very visible. It also feels like there’s some very brief and infrequent but decently forced political ideas that really aren’t necessary. Other than that, people hungry for a teen comedy with parties, language, drugs and sex should take a look at Booksmart, although it’s nowhere near perfection and some audiences won’t get it.
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