Score: 4.5 / 5

Go see this movie. If you are 17 or older, stop reading. Look up showtimes and go see Booksmart. I’ll wait.

Did you see it yet? No jokes here. Go see it as soon as possible. If not, you are going to miss out on one of the best high school coming-of-age comedies in a looong while. Why am I pushing you to see it right now? Well, it’s a smaller movie, and it’s going to get buried in the summer, losing theaters till you are lucky if you can find it anywhere. That would be a crime. This female-directed, female-starring story needs to be seen. It is our duty as an audience to support and carry films that give us new voices and different perspectives. SO GO SEE THE MOVIE!

Alllllright, sorry for the slightly more aggressive tone there. Seriously though, Booksmart is such a fun ride. The story follows two top-notch female students who realize the day before graduation that they haven’t done anything fun in their high school lives. Believing it would be the difference of getting them into the best schools, the harsh reality that the partying teens were getting into the same schools cracks Molly (Beanie Feldstein), who then gets her best friend Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) to join her on getting to the best party and having some of that fun they avoided for four years.

What follows is a movie you have probably seen before as the best friends get into wacky situations and roadblocks getting to the finish line, and when they arrive, they get a mix of fun, pain, conflict, and realizations about their friendship and lives. If you have watched movies like this before, you have seen this plot play out, but what sets this one apart is a great script, great direction, and very great lead actresses.

Directed by Olivia Wilde and written by several talented female writers, Booksmart captures moments and perspectives that you don’t see in movies like this too often. I watched this movie with my girlfriend, who commented that the moments between Amy and Molly felt real and authentic. It leans into this for comedic moments, for building on these characters’ journeys, and in the process, also tells a lot of positive messages on teens letting go of judgments. There is a moment in this movie when one of our leads talks about admitting that she doesn’t know everything, that we as people should be open to understanding and learning from each other over stamping our first impression as everything there is to know about a person. It’s messages like this that make this a movie that you’ll get more out of other than entertainment.

It’s really entertaining, though. This is a really funny movie. The situations Amy and Molly get into made me laugh, the performances made me laugh, the smart script made me laugh, and the likely improved moments made me laugh. This is a comedy that nails it with humor like John Wick nails action. It’s so much fun that even if you don’t care for messages and heartfelt moments (you monster), you’ll just have a blast laughing your way through an hour and forty-five minutes of the movie.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. Booksmart is something special. It merges excellent humor with messages that are worth remembering once you leave the theater. So like I said before. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Thank me after.