Booksmart

Booksmart is a coming of age comedy and the directorial debut of actress Olivia Wilde. Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein play Amy and Molly, academic high-achievers, who realise they haven’t had the true high school experience and embark on one wild night together. I am the perfect audience member for the film: as a 15-year-old who also strives for top marks instead of going out partying, I have never related to characters so much before. Amy and Molly are wonderfully witty and intelligent characters, and I laughed out loud at their lines too many times to count. The repeated gags got funnier and funnier, rather than becoming old as they do in many modern comedies. The coming of age genre has become so crowded and it’s difficult to find a film of this type that doesn’t cling on to the same old clichés. I’m delighted to say Booksmart avoids many of the common features of high school movies, and twists other stereotypes to add even more comedy to the film. I also appreciated how well the LGBT teenagers were treated, especially since their sexuality was not the only element to their characters. Booksmart had the most realistic sex scene I have ever seen in the cinema, and this combined with the lack of common tropes helped the film to be as amazingly realistic as it was. The chemistry between Amy and Molly was so fun to watch and I was constantly thinking about my own friends and how I interact with them. Despite the film’s comedic scenes being so successful, the heartfelt and emotional moments resonate, and you genuinely feel sorry for the two leads. The film is very raunchy, with an abundance of sex jokes, therefore it may be too on the nose for some viewers. Booksmart is not going to appeal to older generations, but for today’s youth it perfectly depicts teenage life and I am certain it will be a firm favourite.