Booksmart (2019)

I was debating between this and Brightburn for which movie I was going to go see on Memorial Day. The deciding factor for me was the critical consensus, the 98% on Rotten Tomato's and the advertisements that stressed "believe the hype". Booksmart is a gross out teen comedy with heart, the Apatow formula that tends to win me over. There is the gender reversal from genera archetype that has been so popular in comedies of recent years, the leads are girls (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein, both excellent), academic high achievers who decide to make up for four years with no social life by attending a string of parties the night before high school graduation. It's a tried and true episodic formula, well handled, and with a good young cast, many of whom are basically unknown and some of home I expect will go on to healthy careers. I want to take a moment though and point out for praise the performance of one of the more established members of that young cast Billie Lourd, she is hilarious and steals every scene she's in.

Besides being a well done example of its type of movie, good performances, strong writing, there are some other aspects of Booksmart  worth praising. First there is the direction by Olivia Wilde, the actresses directorial debut shows her a natural hand at it, I hope she does more, I'm comfortable saying she is a better director then an actor (I feel the same way about Ben Affleck). Then there is what the movie has to say about the younger generation today. Like Fast Times at Ridgemont High did for Gen X, Booksmart does for iGen. It's a teen comedy yes, so it has its limitations, but on a deeper level I feel like I'm seeing this younger generation the way they see themselves, and that is something I haven't really seen presented in film before. The stereotype of a highly sensitive, easily offended generation has its inverse, and that is a capacity for empathy and inclusion beyond what we have seen from previous generations. It's admirable, and it's reassuring, and that's damn welcome. Every character in this movie ends the film looking better then when you first meet them (with the exception of the serial killer). It's an optimistic movie about a generation people just assume is cynical, and that just really struck a cord with me. To encounter something both hopeful and well done like this, even if it's just a silly comedy, well with the way things are right now that's not nothing. Probably the best new movie I've seen so far this year. ****