Booksmart

Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) have achieved exactly what they always wanted in high school: Top-notch grades and the prospect of attending an elite university of their choice. They always followed the rules, never forgot their homework, and certainly never frittered away their time at parties. But just before graduation, a crazy thought occurs to both of them: did this mean they might have missed out on the very thing that makes high school so special? Couldn't they have made it to college with some rollicking fun? And so, without further ado, they make the decision to let it rip on the home stretch. They want to have an epic party night - but that turns out to be harder than they thought.

With Booksmart, Olivia Wilde, known primarily as an actress, presents a whimsical directorial debut that aims to bring a bit of fresh air to the genre of high school comedies. Together with four (!) screenwriters Wilde tells a very conventional story - with the exception that the nerds here are girls and not boys and the fact that one of the girls is also a lesbian. No question, the film has some very funny moments and it has its heart in the right place. But in places it seems to try too hard to show how open and tolerant everyone is here. But especially the LBGTQ characters are - similar to all adult characters - too overdrawn to seem real and almost become really annoying clichés. Yes, our world is colorful, and that's a good thing. But even if you want to show that in a slightly exaggerated, comedic way, you should still be careful not to fall into the cliché trap the way this one does.

All of this wouldn't be worth mentioning if it weren't for the impression that, precisely because it focuses on the girls and pretends to be so tolerant, the film thinks it's better than the average for this genre. And it isn't. The comedy is funny and charming, but not particularly intelligent. For the message it conveys is not exactly served subtly and at times even arguably flat. At least the great chemistry between the two leads saves it over some extremely weak gags.

Grade in the US, the critics have really gushed about how great, how original and how relevant the film was. While I can agree with some of that, I can't quite share the enthusiasm. And that's certainly not because I'm a man. Entertaining? Absolutely! Funny? In some moments, absolutely! Original? Dramaturgically, absolutely not! And relevant? There's just too much being read into the film - which is, however, quite intentional. I take the film for what it is: An entertaining coming-of-age story for girls who want to laugh uninhibitedly about raunchy humor. And for that I give it a proper: Worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp