Review: Booksmart

"We are A+ people going to an A+ party," Molly (Beanie Feldstein) tells her best friend, Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), a mission statement that leads to a night of raucous misadventures, reassessments, and an ever-deepening bond of female friendship in Olivia Wilde's hilarious and brilliant teen comedy, Booksmart.

Molly and Amy may be A+ people, breaking out in impromptu, endearingly awkward dance parties in the street and evoking Malala when needing each other's unconditional support, but they're not exactly part of the in crowd at their high school. That's just fine by Molly, a take-no-prisoners overachiever who is more than happy to wield her smugness over her fellow classmates who have done nothing but party hard when she and Amy have forsaken such fun to ensure that they get into prestigious colleges. Except, as she realises with dawning horror, these idiotic slackers have managed to both learn and party and still get themselves in Ivy League colleges. The competitive Molly isn't about to let her peers get the better of her so she decides, the night before graduation, that she and Amy are going to make up for lost time by attending a party hosted by senior class hottie, Nick (Mason Gooding).

The shier, more stable Amy isn't quite as enthusiastic about the idea, but is cajoled into going through with it when Molly points out that she hasn't yet kissed a girl and her crush, a skater girl named Ryan (Victoria Ruesga), will also be at the party. Making their way to the party, however, proves easier said than done, as they encounter detours involving murder mystery parties, a hallucinogenic drug trip that allows for a fantastic stop-motion sequence that allows for pointed and subversive humour that avoids being heavy-handed, and the constant appearance of one Gigi, a highly eccentric rich girl magnificently portrayed by Billie Lourd. Friendships are tested, perspectives are reviewed, life lessons are learned, and, above all, audience satisfaction is to be had as the night unfolds.

Wilde displays a confident hand, maintaining a zippy pace, delivering the laughs, but never losing sight of the central bond between the two young women, whose dynamic resembles the one one between Abbi and Ilana on Broad City. Like those latter troublemakers, Molly and Amy's insecurities are filtered through an ebullience of attitude. Feldstein and Dever are perfectly cast, each embodying their characters with a depth and authenticity that makes audiences instinctively connect and relate. Booksmart easily positions itself alongside Superbad as one of the best teen comedies in the last decade or so, and, much like Clueless, Easy A, and Mean Girls, does so from an unapologetically female point of view.

Booksmart

Directed by: Olivia Wilde

Written by: Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman

Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Noah Galvin, Billie Lourd, Skyler Gisondo, Jason Sudeikis, Mason Gooding, Victoria Ruesga, Diana Silvers