Booksmart

My standards for comedy movies are a lot less rigorous than for other genres. I care less about cinematography, pacing and other such concerns. With comedy movies, all I care about is did it make me laugh with regularity. Booksmart made me laugh a lot.

Booksmart follows two intelligent teenagers, Amy and Molly. Both girls are graduating high school and attending prestigious universities. However, the girls learn that many of their classmates who they consider dumb are also attending prestigious universities. This leads them to rethink their all work, no play approach and let lose on their last night of high school

Only one of Booksmart’s two leads, Amy played by Kaitlyn Dever is a lesbian. Though the other one is played by Beanie Feldstein who is queer in real life so maybe that counts for something. Between these two characters, Booksmart focuses on two high school protagonists who we usually don’t see- a fat girl and a lesbian.

Beyond having marginalized characters, Booksmart blew my mind because neither of its lead ever got bullied or ostracized because of being gay or fat. There’s a scene in which Molly overhears some kids talking about her in the bathroom. One of the characters opines that Molly’s cute but her personality is ugly. This really shocked me. Not only does a character openly admit that he finds an overweight character to be cute without irony but then goes on to express his problems with her actual personality, not her looks. Booksmart definitely has teenagers being mean but there’s not really any racism, homophobia or fatphobia. Characters are made fun of because of their actual personalities and character flaws. What a revelation. Maybe this isn’t a realistic depiction of high schoolers but maybe it’s an ideal we can aspire to.

Booksmart is also a movie about teenagers where being queer isn’t a big deal. Amy is mentioned as being out since tenth grade. While she’s awkward and hasn’t kissed a girl at the start of the movie, her sexuality doesn’t seem to cause her any distress nor has she experienced discrimination or hate because of it. Furthermore, Amy is the only of the two leads to get a sex scene. It admittedly doesn’t end well but that in and of itself is something. This isn’t a provocative sex scene featuring young women. It’s funny and awkward and probably relatable for some girls. In general, there’s more focus in this movie about the queer character’s romantic and sexual prospects than the straight characters.

More than anything though, Booksmart is about friendship. I love that. I really enjoy when movies about or for young people emphasize relationships and love other than the romantic kind. Romance is often fleeting at that age but you can make lifelong, very important friendships. And that’s what Booksmart is about; two girls who instead of having romances have a somewhat codependent relationship with each other that despite their differences will likely last them their entire lives. These are the kind of relationships I think movies for teenagers should focus on and celebrate.

Booksmart is a win in my books. Admittedly I’m predisposed to like movies about smart, awkward white girls. But there’s a good amount of successful jokes in any given scene and a solid story to tie it all together. Booksmart is a very successful, modern high school comedy complete with a diverse cast of characters and an emphasis on female relationships. It’s is definitely one to check out for comedy fans or anyone looking for lighter WLW movies.

Overall rating: 9/10

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