Booksmart (2019)
Directed by Olivia Wilde
Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
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What critics say influenced Booksmart
Because of the film’s timeless message, Booksmart evokes the pantheon of teen/college comedies that come to define generations: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, and, yes, even Superbad.
Because of this, high school comedies have been a major force in the film world since their propagation in the 1980s on the back of John Hughes, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Porky’s.”
Each generation has their Fast Times at Ridgemont High or their Superbad (which is somehow already 12 years old).
Dever and Wilde have both compared the film to John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club in interviews and Wilde screened Fast Times At Ridgemont High for the cast the day before they commenced shooting.
It’s a delightful little miracle in its way: a The Breakfast Club (1985) message smuggled inside an outlandish Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) package.
Booksmart is a teen dramedy that lacks the razor-sharp wit, intelligence and delicate blend of comedy, drama and satire found in coming-of-age films like Mean Girls, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghost World, Clueless, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and many more that have managed to transcend their own genre to become timeless classics or cult classics.
“Booksmart” also cuts its manic horniness with a meandering weirdness that recalls Richard Linklater’s ambling “Dazed and Confused” as well as hints of the low-key dread running through “American Graffiti,” the urtext of this genre.
It’s another film in the grand tradition of right-around-graduation movies ( Can’t Hardly Wait , Dazed and Confused , Pretty in Pink, 10 Things I Hate About You ), but Booksmart gives off especially distinct Superbad vibes, both in story structure and its general theme of growing up.
Because of the film’s timeless message, Booksmart evokes the pantheon of teen/college comedies that come to define generations: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, and, yes, even Superbad.
To do so, however, would reveal a lack of familiarity with all of the tropes of teen films from Dazed and Confused to Can’t Hardly Wait and simultaneously diminish Booksmart to a simple gender flip take on a decent, but inferior film.
We’ve had movies like “Dazed and Confused,” “Mean Girls,” and “Breakfast Club,” and we’re very fortunate to have had two very good movies (“Eighth Grade”) about the modern youth culture in the last five years.
If you’ve seen “Dazed and Confused” or “Superbad” you’ll recognize the mood of aggressive silliness and sincere sentiment that hovers over Molly and Amy’s adventures.
The pendulum of teen girl movies swings typically from Clueless—girl-powered, cutesy, high-fashion first-love-centered—to Thirteen, the wild, angry, depressed and running from all genuine emotion kind of movie.
Booksmart is a teen dramedy that lacks the razor-sharp wit, intelligence and delicate blend of comedy, drama and satire found in coming-of-age films like Mean Girls, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghost World, Clueless, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and many more that have managed to transcend their own genre to become timeless classics or cult classics.
Recall the moronic brio of cosseted sixteen-year-old Beverly Hills resident Cher Horowitz, who pronounces “Haitians” as “Hate-ee-ans” during debate class, in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995), or the title character in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017), a Sacramento native who disdainfully announces to her mother that she wants to apply to colleges on the East Coast, “where culture is.”
The alumni include John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Reginald Hudlin (House Party), Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Diablo Cody (Juno), Daniel Waters (Heathers), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), and Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).
It borrows its it-all-happened-during-one-night time frame from “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused,” some soundtrack concepts from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and one of the lead characters is more than a little bit related to Cher from “Clueless.”
I’m tempted to call Booksmart the new Clueless.
A gender-swapped Superbad.
Let’s get the obvious comparison out of the way: A clear antecedent to “Booksmart” is 2007’s “Superbad,” Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s hit raunchfest that made a star out of Jonah Hill, who also happens to be Feldstein’s big brother.
If this sounds a lot like Superbad —which starred Feldstein’s brother, Jonah Hill—be assured that nothing about Booksmart feels stale.
The comparisons have already begun; Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut has been branded the female Superbad, and lauded for its innovative use of classic high school comedy tropes like that of the big night out before graduation, and the nerd crushing on the jock.
In a strange, but wonderful way, Booksmart similarly topples over any expectations we may’ve beset not only upon it – coming out of SXSW, it was simplified by many as “Superbad with girls” – but the teenage genre as a whole.
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“Booksmart” also cuts its manic horniness with a meandering weirdness that recalls Richard Linklater’s ambling “Dazed and Confused” as well as hints of the low-key dread running through “American Graffiti,” the urtext of this genre.
Booksmart borrows elements of many coming-of-age classics, from American Graffiti (1973) to Risky Business (1983) to Superbad (2007).
It borrows its it-all-happened-during-one-night time frame from “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused,” some soundtrack concepts from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and one of the lead characters is more than a little bit related to Cher from “Clueless.”
Although its “nerdy misfit high-schoolers seek darkness and transformation at an epic party the night before graduation” premise is a time-tested formula, seen in every era from American Graffiti to Dazed and Confused to Can’t Hardly Wait to Superbad, Wilde’s film feels totally original and new.
The high school coming-of-age comedy is a subgenre unto itself, with each decade delivering movies that have become classics, like American Graffiti, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Can't Hardly Wait, Superbad, Easy A and more recent films such as The Edge of Seventeen and Lady Bird.
It owes a debt to generational classics such as American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, Can’t Hardly Wait, and Superbad—movies about high schoolers running wild as they edge up to adulthood and obsess over the specter of an uncertain future.
Feldstein, who is 26, is carving out a niche for herself as a one-woman tribute act to adolescence; she was BFF to Saoirse Ronan’s title character in Greta Gerwig’s brilliantly directed teen dramedy Lady Bird (2017), and here she plays the wily yet ebullient guide to Dever’s less demonstrative character.
For anyone who might have been living under a rock after Lady Bird, Feldstein is a dynamic performer who is here to stay.
Best friends Molly and Amy, played respectively by Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird) and Kaitlyn Dever (TV's Justified) are straight-A students who've worked hard to get into the top colleges of their choice, but the good girls want to go bad and take a walk on the wild side.
After four FOMO-resistant years, domineering Molly (Beanie Feldstein, whose breakout role as Saoirse Ronan’s bestie in Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” marked her for greatness) and reserved Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) realize at the eleventh hour that they had avoided wild times in high school for no good reason: If the kids they wrote off as drug-addled idiots and slacker sluts also got into top-tier colleges, what in the hell was the point of cloistering themselves in the library for four years?
Both have had smaller parts in other high-school comedies (Feldstein in Lady Bird and Dever in The Spectacular Now ).
Anchored by gut-bustingly hilarious performances from Kaitlyn Dever (Justified) and Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird), Booksmart tells of an insane two days in the lives of soon-to-be high school graduates.
Because of the film’s timeless message, Booksmart evokes the pantheon of teen/college comedies that come to define generations: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, and, yes, even Superbad.
Dever and Wilde have both compared the film to John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club in interviews and Wilde screened Fast Times At Ridgemont High for the cast the day before they commenced shooting.
It’s a delightful little miracle in its way: a The Breakfast Club (1985) message smuggled inside an outlandish Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) package.
Booksmart is a teen dramedy that lacks the razor-sharp wit, intelligence and delicate blend of comedy, drama and satire found in coming-of-age films like Mean Girls, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghost World, Clueless, Heathers, The Breakfast Club and many more that have managed to transcend their own genre to become timeless classics or cult classics.
The alumni include John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Reginald Hudlin (House Party), Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Diablo Cody (Juno), Daniel Waters (Heathers), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), and Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).
En este viaje el guión de Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel y Katie Silberman (sumar sus experiencias merece un texto extra) las enfrenta a sus propios hombres de paja, a su león cobarde, a su ser de hojalata a través de los cuales Amy y Molly comprenderán su propio valor en medio de toques de comedia que a veces nos llevan a la camaradería del Trainspotting (Reino Unido, 1996) de Danny Boyle y otras al humor gamberro y mordaz, inclemente y veloz de las comedias de David y Jerry Zucker (“we’ve done it a vagillion times!”), para después ajustar las tuercas y dar la vuelta a la camaradería que surge del imposible como en The Breakfast Club (EUA, 1985) o la que se refuerza en el imposible (esa fiesta en el bote,) como en Arma mortal (EUA, 1987).
Back in the days of “Porky’s,” “Losin’ It,” and “Zapped!,” we used to call these things “stu-coms,” short for “stupid,” and the good ones (“Better Off Dead,” “Risky Business”) were few and far between.
Booksmart borrows elements of many coming-of-age classics, from American Graffiti (1973) to Risky Business (1983) to Superbad (2007).
Certain elements are reminiscent of high school movies ranging from “Risky Business” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “The Breakfast Club” to “Say Anything” to “Superbad” to “Easy A,” and “Booksmart” often presents familiar characters and situations: the gigantic blow-out party, the last chance to reveal one’s true feelings to a longtime crush, well-meaning but clueless parents, the misunderstood “weirdo” kid, the big fight between best friends, etc.
The journey they go on just to get to Nick’s bash is like something out of Paul Brickman’s Risky Business ,John Landis’ Into the Night or Martin Scorsese’s After Hours , only with a feminine twist that’s pleasantly delightful.
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It is usually the male characters who inject some change into them, be it Zack (Freddie Prinze Jr.) in She’s All That , Patrick (Heath Ledger) in 10 Things I Hate About You or even Oz (Chris Klein) in American Pie .
It’s another film in the grand tradition of right-around-graduation movies ( Can’t Hardly Wait , Dazed and Confused , Pretty in Pink, 10 Things I Hate About You ), but Booksmart gives off especially distinct Superbad vibes, both in story structure and its general theme of growing up.
Because of the film’s timeless message, Booksmart evokes the pantheon of teen/college comedies that come to define generations: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, and, yes, even Superbad.
Con los inspiradores precedentes de John Hugues de los años 80 y la derivación paródica de American Pie (Paul Weitz, 1999), alcanzaría un cierto cénit en la cinefilia joven con Supersalidos (Greg Mottola, 2007), la historia de dos alumnos de instituto bastante pringados que deciden contra toda expectativa y esperanza organizar un fiestón.
It is usually the male characters who inject some change into them, be it Zack (Freddie Prinze Jr.) in She’s All That , Patrick (Heath Ledger) in 10 Things I Hate About You or even Oz (Chris Klein) in American Pie .
Its setup may seem rote – the sort of hook we’ve seen in so many of these movies, whether it’s “Can’t Hardly Wait,” “American Pie” or “Superbad” – but “Booksmart” takes that tired premise and makes it something entirely its own.
Es un relato tan viejo como el tiempo, o al menos uno que toma inspiración en clásicos como “Animal House”, “Revenge of the Nerds” y por supuesto, “American Pie”, pero que necesaria e inteligentemente se adapta a una audiencia más sofisticada.
Wilde’s smart directing choices and the bravery of her two fearless leads transform a series of comic set-pieces, usually seen in fare such as American Pie, into iconic character moments.
From the American Pie series to Superbad, generational coming-of-age films are nothing new, but rarely do they feature intelligent and driven young women, almost never in a positive manner, and heaven-forbid be rated-R.