Ben Oliver

Banner image for Booksmart
film

Booksmart

We haven’t done anything. We haven’t broken any rules.
22 September 2019

Two girls (Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever) realise they have spent their whole time at high school studying, and no time partying. They set out to rectify this on the last day before graduation.

Another excellent teen comedy to add to the recent string of them. Again, this one works largely because it takes its characters deadly seriously, and offers no smug winks to older viewers. Anyone over 24 feels old, but that’s a small price to pay for a film that is so honest and funny.

The two leads have a tangible chemistry, supported by a great cast who wring out every second of screen time to flesh out interesting and ever changing characters. The world everyone inhabits feels alive and constantly shifting, even in the space of a day.

One might argue that the screenplay panders to modern sensibilities, and on paper I would agree. However as the film plays out, nothing in the screenplay feels forced and nothing is there just to tick boxes. Only time will tell how well it will age, but my spidey-sense tells me this one has a lot of mileage in it.

Hard to think of a better debut for Olivia Wilde.

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