Saturday, May 25, 2019

"Booksmart"

  

There's an undercurrent of inevitable heartbreak beating at the core of Booksmart, so even while you're laughing -- and you'll be laughing a lot -- you are also bracing yourself for the moment that is bound to happen. And it does.

There is no way I'd dream of telling you when, where and how, but it plays out just beautifully, first giddy and filled with promise, then devastating, then awkward, then intensely personal. Every moment of it is pitched so perfectly, underscoring what a special movie this is, one that does the unimaginable: It offers a perspective that feels entirely new to teen films, a genre in which nothing seems like it could be new.

Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde, and it is hard to comprehend that this is her first directing effort. Everything about this film feels right, even (especially) when it takes a left turn into a hilarious sequence with animated Barbie dolls.

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein star as two best friends who have dedicated themselves to being the perfect high school student. On the night before graduation, they worry maybe they did it all wrong, maybe they should have had fun. Their friendship isn't like the ones you've seen before; it rings of truth, as does the incredible supporting cast. They, and the movie, ring with a familiarity and truth, and despite an occasional detour into gross-out territory, Booksmart is the funniest, most disarming and, so far, best movie of the year.



Viewed May 25, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks

1910

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