Review of Booksmart, directed by Olivia Wilde

I was thinking about Booksmart for the first time in a hot minute a few weeks ago. It had been years since I had seen the movie, as by the time I was writing this, it had been out for years.

I think what had spurred this dwelling on memory lane was the fact I was thinking about how I had won the Funny Girl lottery multiple times in New York City when Beanie when in the show, but because I didn’t feel like spending the money every time I was up there, I never ended up seeing her in the role before she was booted out.

I did, however, see her in Booksmart and that was good enough for me.

This was also such a good debut for Olivia Wilde as a director, although her later works I have a tendency to cringe at, as Booksmart is such a smart movie in general when it comes to a certain form of representation for young women.

It reminds me of a toned down version of Bottoms, which would come out years later, and that’s what makes it fun to reflect on this movie after all the years passing.

Anyways, I’m rambling. Let’s get into the review.

Two Ivy League bound high schoolers realized they’ve wasted their entire lives studying.

Our protagonists in this movie are Amy and Molly, who’ve dedicated their entire high school careers towards trying to get into Ivy Leagues.

Now that they’re prepped and ready to go to one, they’re coming to the crushing realization that no one in their class actually likes them, despite Molly literally being the class president.

While Amy gets a crush on a fellow female classmate, Molly tells her now is her chance. But the night before graduation, Molly finds some classmates shit talking her, tells them she got into Yale as a sort of brag, and then she realizes they all also got into good schools.

The catch? They partied and lives their lives, unlike her, and still got into these schools.

This crushes Molly, who realizes everything was for waste, and she tells Amy they need to enjoy high school more. So they agree to go to a graduation party hosted by one of their classmates, and when they call another kid about it, he takes them to his party instead.

After being fed strawberries by a girl who’s high, they decide to leave and make it to the other party.

When they get into the car they ordered on an app, they realize their principal is driving because he doesn’t make enough money. This somehow doesn’t deter them from watching porn in the backseat, as Molly wants Amy to have sex with someone, and they end up blasting it on the speakers.

They arrive at what they think is the right party, but it turns out it’s not: it’s a murder mystery party hosted by someone else. They run into the high girl again, who informs them that the strawberries were full of hallucinogens, and they begin to start tripping.

They leave that party and get the right address by threatening a pizza man, and they ask their teacher to drive them there.

For some reason, everyone acts excited to see the girls there, which is weird, and Amy walks in on her crush making out with the party host. Molly and Amy then have a fallout, and Amy reveals that she is taking an entire gap year to get away from Molly, resulting in a massive argument between them in front of everyone.

Amy storms into the bathroom, where she makes out with another classmate and they start prepping to have sex. Amy throws up on her though, ending that chance. Jared and Molly have a deep conversation elsewhere as the cop shows up, and Molly is driven home by another student.

The next morning, Molly checks her phone and realizes Amy got arrested creating a diversion for everyone, then she visits Amy in jail and apologizes.

They realize the pizza guy was a serial killer, use that info to get her out of jail, then head to graduation. Molly kisses Jared and gives a half-assed speech to everyone, then gets a standing ovation.

Amy prepares a couple days later to leave town for Botswana, and she gets the girl she almost had sex with before in the bathroom. The movie ends with Amy and Molly getting pancakes before Amy’s flight to Africa.

Overall Thoughts

The sense of humor in Booksmart can be crude, so if you lean conservative you’re probably not going to like the jokes and what the girls are talking about, but I imagine the core audience watching this movie is not in that camp.

I enjoyed Booksmart a lot because it’s refreshing compared to the other teen girl movies out there, and it also acknowledges that hey, maybe getting into an Ivy League and sacrificing your life for the hustle and bustle of capitalism isn’t worth it at the end of the day.

I sure can attest that I did what these girls did and didn’t go to an Ivy League, kind of regretting it now. And, for what’s it worth, I really enjoyed Bottoms too.

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