Booksmart (2019)

“[Amy is being put into a police car by a cop] Shotgun! Just kidding. I don’t have one.” – Amy

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Oct 2019)

Brief Synopsis – On the night before graduation, two best friends who never have been to a wild party let themselves loose in order to have one night of partying and fun before real life begins.

My Take on it – This is a film that I’ve heard great things about over the past few months and decided to finally see what it was all about.

In some ways it’s a throwback to an 80’s teen comedy that is updated for the present and works almost the whole way through.

The script is great and is filled with lots of clever dialogue that helps develop the characters and those around them.

The performances by the two leads – Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein are superb and they have such amazing chemistry together which helps make us believe that they truly are best friends and not just actresses playing those roles.

They do a great job of making these two characters so very different personality wise despite the fact that they are still similar from an academic perspective.

This helps each of them have such fun adventures both together and apart as the story moves forward to some very fun places.

The story does a wonderful job stretching the limitations of a strong friendship and letting us see how far they can take certain situations which can sometimes be quite stressful especially for teens on the verge of their entrance into the “real world”.

They find a way to keep things quite enjoyable the whole way through while still keeping things fresh and original with some nice surprises as the story moves along.

Bottom Line – Interesting idea that works due to the clever script and the performances of the two leads. Love the way that despite being similar from an academic perspective, the personalities of these two girls are so very different and allows them each to have some really fun adventures both together and separately along the way. The film does a great job of testing the limits of friendship in stressful situations and says so much about the chemistry that these two actresses have together because they really do seem like best friends. The story is enjoyable for what it tries to do and stays fun and exciting throughout especially when it finds ways to surprise. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Screenwriter Katie Silberman said that Billie Lourd did such an impressive performance that extra scenes were written specifically for her. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)