Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Booksmart (2019)

This is topic Booksmart (2019) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=002427

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 05-29-2019, 03:37 PM:

CINEMA: B&B Ankeny 12 & B-Roll Bowling, Ankeny, IA
AUDITORIUM: 9, SEAT: B5
PRESENTATION: B&B Recline-o-Vision stadium seating with butt warmers and mystery meat digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Three stars (out of four)

THE PLOT: When good girls go bad, wackiness usually ensues. Let this be a lesson to you all.

Best friends Amy and Molly worked hard to be at the top of their class at the sacrifice of normal teenage lives so they could end up better than their classmates. We start the movie on the last day of school where they're happily looking at their ivy league future and feeling more than a little superior to their classmates who surely will end up with lesser lives...until they find out said classmates also still managed to get into ivy league schools. Except that one guy who isn't going to college because he got a half-million dollar gig at Google. So they decide they're going to crash the big class party on the last night of school so they don't completely miss out on the high school experience.

The movie is paced a lot like Lady Bird, and that's not a bad thing. It's what makes this stand out from the classic "first time at a high school party" genre. I laughed out loud for nearly the entire first fifteen minutes of this movie. There's still plenty to laugh at after that, of course, as well as the surprise, hope, and teen drama twists you'd expect in such a movie. And...spoilers...it ends in a really great place.

As teen party comedies go, this is a really good one.