181108_Marketing_Stills_Car_RBeanie Feldstein stars as Molly and Kaitlyn Dever as Amy in Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, BOOKSMART, an Annapurna Pictures release.Credit: Courtesy of Annapurna Pictures
Time for a movie review and what better than when Una caught the film Booksmart this week at HOME Cinema Manchester…
BOOKSMART REVIEW
I made a conscious effort to see this after receiving recommendations from several sources, plus I’ve always enjoyed a decent coming of age film. I have to admit I was drawn to it even more when I saw that it starred Ladybird’s wonderful Beanie Feldstein (pop fact – Jonah Hill’s sister). And star she does! Alongside Sigrid lookalike Kaitlyn Fever, they absolutely own the film as Molly and Amy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBdB9e-krPM&t=3s
P-A-R-T-WHY???
High achievers at high school, Molly arrives at her last day and has a massive realisation: many people have got into great colleges AND partied through their studies. She and Amy worked so hard, making all the effort to get good grades but have no social life.
So they need one night to make sure they had some experiences and lived a little at least. The aim: getting into the party that everybody else is going to.
BOLD AND A BIG HEART
It is bold and fast from the start. Big on the screen, loud with great music. It’s laugh-out-loud funny with lots of ‘I’ve been there’ cringeworthy moments, but it has a really good heart too.
There’s a great pace to proceedings; set over 2 days it feels quick and bouncy. Easily comparible to such films as Mean Girls and Never Been Kissed (oldie but a goodie) with instantly likeable characters.
SURREAL
There are some slightly surreal moments but these are much welcomed! I loved the stop-motion animation drug sequence, as well as the illogical appearance of Gigi (Billie Catherine Lourd) throughout several scenes. It makes it unpredictable and entertaining, very much like most people’s experience of being a teenager. But it also hints of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s influence as executive producers.
REAL AND RELEVANT
The movie feels very now and modern, the acting is great. The relationship between the main characters feels very real and at times it’s genuinely emotional. Olivia Wilde’s film directoral debut is a definite success. It’s been heralded as a great teen film.
Well we’re not teens and we really enjoyed it.
And there’s plenty more where that came from. Get lost down a FILM rabbit hole right here:
Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thankyou .