Actors making their directorial debut do not have the greatest track record. That’s why certain first helming endeavors stand out and make Hollywood history. Think Robert Redford with Ordinary People, Orson Welles with Citizen Kane (considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time), Ben Affleck with Gone Baby Gone, Richard Benjamin’s My Favorite Year and who could forget Barbra Streisand with Yentl. Joining that club will be actress Olivia Wilde, who has crafted the hilarious, insightful and endearing Booksmart.
Wilde triumphantly brought the stunning screenplay by a fab four of female wordsmiths—Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman—to life in the most refreshing, riveting and brutally honest of ways. It also serves as a talent announcement for its two leads. Kaitlyn Dever is awesome as Amy, and Beany Feldstein dazzles as Molly. The BFFs are seniors in high school, knocking on the door of graduation. There is one more night in their secondary education career. After doing everything correctly for four years, they realize they have one last opportunity to go a little crazy before high school lands in the rear view mirror and the seriousness of college and adult life takes its hold.
The way that Amy and Molly come to this conclusion is a stroke of creative genius. It combines a wicked commentary on judging books by covers while straddling the line between regret and aspiration-soaked hopes and dreams. See, their fellow seniors, Amy and Molly learn on this final day of school, managed to achieve their own smart successes of prestigious college admissions, all while firmly enjoying the heck out of the high school experience.
There is a night before graduation party. Our twin towers of educational excellence make it their mission to attend the soiree. There’s only one problem. They don’t know where it is and their desperation to let loose has them trying everything they can to discover the elusive address.
Screenplay wizard William Goldman (Princess Bride, All the President’s Men) famously stated that every character a screenwriter crafts should be so layered and rich that they could carry their own film. That sentiment could not be truer than with the souls that inhabit the madcap world in Wilde’s directorial debut. Casting director Allison Jones outdid herself. And it would hardly surprise if Booksmart is one of those teen films (such as Dazed and Confused) that history reflects on years later and marvels over the number of talented thespians that comprised the film’s cast.
Sure, Wilde’s other half, Jason Sudeikis, dazzles as per usual as the school’s principal who is more than ready to have Amy and Molly move on to college. Skyler Gisondo’s Jared is the embodiment of so many teens who overcompensate to be accepted when they later learn that they should have just been themselves. Molly Gordon as “Triple A” encapsulates the personification of a high schooler whose first impression doesn’t reflect who one is in the slightest. Diana Silvers is a force of nature as Hope, the seemingly judgmental senior who winds up serving as an emotional catapult for Amy in a myriad of means. Silvers is an actress having a moment. Seven days after leaving us breathless in Booksmart,she anchors the Octavia Spencer thriller Ma. Noah Galvin turns in a performance as George that could have been two-dimensional at its least and stereotypical at the most. Instead, Wilde and her screenwriters have introduced a gay character that exists firmly in a post-Love, Simon landscape where stereotypes are not welcomed.
What Wilde has achieved in her directorial debut is something that film aficionados will be studying for decades to come. There are pitfalls that could have been waiting for her around every storytelling corner. Not only did she sidestep those potential landmines, but Wilde delivered an inspired piece of work that is the rare comedy that warrants being seen more than once. Booksmart is, like Dazed and Confused and Mean Girls, a cinematic moment in time that will have a seismic effect long after its run in theaters. The filmmaker has pitch perfectly captured the tone and tenor of what it means to be a teenager in 2019. Every single one of us went through those wildly challenging years and as such can find one individual in Booksmart with whom to identify.
Feldstein and Dever deliver raw realities with a sensibility that will have audiences utterly enamored. Feldstein has crafted a young woman who firmly knows what she wants out of life and even has a set-in-stone blueprint for that future. It is one that she can rattle off as quickly as she delivers wicked retorts to those who find her a little too much to handle. Dever not only represents countless gay teens who are as lost in their sexualities as their heterosexual friends, but also matches Feldstein’s drive. Yes, they have Michelle Obama and RBG photos on their walls. But these two take what could have been cardboard cut-out representations of the aspirational teen poised for success, and completely turn it on its head.
Booksmart easily could have found itself mirroring any number of teen comedies or coming-of-age movie moments. Instead, it carves out its own extraordinary place in movie history. Wilde’s film personifies what it is about the cinematic experience that has made it one of society’s most beloved pastimes.
Grade: A