Booksmart (Film Review)

2019 United Artists Releasing
Directed by: Olivia Wilde; Written by: Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman
Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, and Jason Sudeikis
MPAA Rating: R; 105 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Every generation, there is a senior-year-ending party, and a member of the Feldstein family must rise up to attend it, and attempt to lose their virginity there. 12 years ago, that member was Jonah Hill Feldstein in 2007's Superbad. In 2019, it's Beanie Feldstein in Booksmart.  I can't bury the lede or hide the elephant in the room: Booksmart, a delightful and hilarious film, follows some beats from one of my favorite comedies of the 00's.
Superbad follows the misadventures of a very codependent pair of best friends, played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, who've socially underachieved throughout high school and have decided to try to lose their virginities at a blowout senior party. Booksmart follows the misadventures of a very codependent pair of best friends, played by Beanie Feldstein (Jonah Hill's real life younger sister) and Kaitlyn Dever, who've socially underachieved throughout high school and have decided to try to lose their virginities at a blowout senior party. In both films, the party ends due to trouble with the law, while the central duo explore the idea that maybe their respective futures will allow for more growth if the two of them put some distance between each other. This is a bit of an archetypal story at this point in cinematic history, and Booksmart is most definitely its own animal, but there are certainly unignorable moments where the 2019 film feels like the Millennial Superbad's younger Gen Y sibling. Considering that's the worst thing I can say about it...
Booksmart is a freshly directed, smartly written, and vibrantly acted film. Olivia Wilde, in her directorial debut, brings a unique and steady momentum and energy to the film, while somehow avoiding that "IN YOUR FACE, I'M SO LOUD!" tact that first time filmmakers take to keep viewers' attentions. In fact, the word that best describes Booksmart's energy is "hypnotic," which is not one I would think a laugh-a-minute teen comedy full of masturbation jokes, a drug trip involving Barbie Dolls, and one of the better sudden vomits in cinematic history would conjure. Wilde makes great use of lighting, blocking, movement, and even soundtrack choices, green-lighting atmospheric cuts above popular throwaway songs of the moment.
The result is a sort of euphoric constant motion (conjuring the exact feelings of rushing adolescent hormones), only further highlighted by the multiple screenwriters rapid-fire, yet believable dialogue, and Feldstein and Dever's remarkable, marvelous chemistry. Kaitlyn Dever has impressed ever since she ambled onto the set of Justified as a teenager and started trading barbs with Timothy Olyphant just as well as Walton Goggins did. As Booksmart's Amy, Dever plays a decidedly meeker character, but inhabits her just as naturally. The unknown quantity here is Feldstein as Molly, but the young actress arrives just like her brother did 12 years ago, as if shot out of a cannon. Molly, supremely confident and seemingly unflappable receives a brutal shock to the system when Booksmart hilariously upends one of the "Senior year is almost over" teen comedy's worst tropes--that every one is going to an ivy league school. I ranted earlier this year in print and podcast form, about how the awful The Last Summer plays into the trope with zero self-awareness, but Booksmart runs over it with a Zamboni. In Feldstein's virtuoso, breakout moment, Molly supremely freaks out as she discovers that all of her classmates, the ones she's regarded as party-obsessed, slobbering idiots, have gotten into the same quality of college as she has. Feldstein does an incredible job of making Molly vulnerable here, likable, hilarious, a little full-of-herself, and yet still resolute. The realization that she's possibly sacrificed years of fun for nothing becomes the impetus for Molly to drag the homebody Amy along to the climactic party. It's at the party, after many "will we ever get there?!" misadventures, that Booksmart provides its iconic scene, which I believe should be added to the teen comedy canon's greatest moments.
As the hour grows late, Molly is having great luck with the guy she's set her eyes upon, and he tells her he'll be right back, leaving Molly alone in a surprised, joyful state of excitement. Meanwhile, Amy, who has been ambivalent about the entire night, suddenly finds things might be going well with the girl she's set her own eyes upon. As a spellbinding song (Perfume Genius' "Slip Away") and then sound of Amy breathing takes over Booksmart's soundscape, and time seems to slow, Amy follows her crush to a crowded pool, lights and movement blurring all around her, as in the distance, her crush strips down to her underwear and dives in. In an absolute headrush of energy, in a moment of spontaneity the equal of which she's never once entertained or thought herself capable of, Amy throws her dress over her head, runs toward the pool, dives in...and something completely unexpected happens.
Wilde captures that moment of finally letting go so perfectly, and even better captures the feeling of...let's just say not getting what you expect when you finally let go of your inhibitions. Personally,  I related heavily to the scene, and considering how far those years are growing behind me, that's the proof of some damn fine work. Here's to more directorial opportunities for Wilde, more from these writers, and particularly for whatever is to come from Feldstein and Dever. Whatever's in this groups future, Booksmart's a feather in all their caps.