There’s something about coming of age comedies that makes them the perfect festival film, rooting the the main characters through their on-screen personal growth, and more often than not, a fulfilling ending. Some are more innocent yet still boast bundles of personality, like The Kings Of Summer, while others are more raucus yet still stick the landing on creating heartfelt, honest characters, like this, the excellent Booksmart.
Best friends since childhood, Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are two high school seniors who have killed it in the classroom, but realise on the eve of their graduation that perhaps they should have partied a little more. So determined to go out with a bang, when they hear about a party one of their classmates is throwing, they make a pact to step out of their comfort zones and pack four years of fun into one night – there’s only one problem, they don’t know where the party is.
What follows 102 minutes of all-out, full throttle adventure as the girls charge from scene to scene trying to track down the main event. While the film can go from riotous extreme to riotous extreme, it’s not gross out, Booksmart is an honest, sincere and heartfelt ode to friendship and the gay abandon of youth.
The directorial debut from Olivia Wilde, I didn’t know what to expect of Wilde the filmmaker, but I guess something supremely stylish and effortlessly confident shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Music plays a key role, and with a killer soundtrack that always hits the right emotional beat as the film is supremely well-paced, and really does well to not fall foul of the usual restraints of the ‘one night of mayhem’ kind of film. Booksmart doesn’t stop-start, and it’s consistently funny rather than leaving all the laughs to just a handful of blowout scenes. Some superbly entertaining side roles from more experienced stars Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis definitely help in this regard too.
This is the film last year’s Blockers should have been, an honest coming-of-age adventure that goes beyond the surface, stripping the layers of each character away as the film develops. It can be raw, and it can be raucus, and despite coming across as a touch try-hard at times, this is a minor complaint. Superbad for a new generation, with star- making performances from the two leads and the announcement of Olivia Wilde as a directorial force, Booksmart is an empowering tale that should become a modern cult classic.