Booksmart

[osprey_archer]

Back when Booksmart first came out, I had friends who raved about it - RAVED. One friend from high school, who I only rarely hear from, emerged from radio silence to tell me that I HAD to go see it.

And now I've finally seen it, and... I don't super get the hype? Probably part of the problem is that I did go into it super hyped, fully expecting an experience at once transcendent and hilarious, and instead it was just fine.

Another part of the problem was that I fundamentally didn't buy the premise of the movie: that moment when Molly discovers that the classmates whom she has always considered loser slackers are, in fact, all going to Ivy League colleges. Just like Molly and her best friend Amy, who kept their noses to the grindstone all through high school! Molly, appalled, decides that she and Amy have to go to a party that very night, right before graduation, so that they too can claim to have both studied and partied in high school.

It just seemed so out of touch with reality to me. At my (very academic) high school, not only did the slackers not get into the Ivy League; most of the nose-to-the-grindstone nerds (a.k.a. my social circle) didn't get in either. What kind of bizarro world do Molly and Amy live in that half of their high school is going to Columbia and Yale?

Well, actually, I can answer this: they live in the bizarro world of the very very rich. One of their high school friends throws a catered graduation party on a yacht; another throws a murder mystery themed dinner in his mansion; yet another throws an enormous party in his aunt's mansion, as his aunt happens to be away on vacation.

And yes, probably the bevy of Ivy League acceptances is just meant as shorthand to show that these supposedly non-academic slackers are actually just as smart as Amy and Molly. I've just lost patience with using "attending an Ivy League school!" as shorthand for "worthwhile person," and I found it especially galling in a movie that is otherwise so self-consciously woke.

Another way that my expectations led me astray (and this on is all one me) I had gotten from somewhere the impression that Molly and Amy were going to get together at the end, and they do not. The movie itself doesn't really do anything to lead you to believe this is going to happen; it was entirely my own expectations misleading me.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I bought that Molly really did want to go to a party, but Amy clearly did not, except maybe the movie wanted us to believe she did deep down inside because movies always seem to assume that everyone loves parties? There seems to be an assumption in Hollywood that everyone who stays home to study is actually a poseur who secretly wants to party like everyone else. When actually most of the people who would plan to watch a Ken Burns documentary on graduation night are in fact making that choice because they find it more enjoyable.

The fact that Amy's parents didn't drive her to the airport bugged me too. Like, yes, I absolutely get wanting the last scene in the movie to focus on the most important relationship in the movie, but then maybe... they should have chosen a different scene? Molly and Amy's Last Pancake Breakfast before Amy's parents drive her to the airport, or whatever. It just seemed so bizarre that her parents wouldn't be there for this big milestone moment.

I feel this sometimes in workplace dramas too, where there's a non-work scene - Character X is having a baby! or whatever - and X's workplace buddies are the only people attending this huge moment in her life. No family? No friends outside of work? I realize that it's because the creators are focusing on the characters that the viewers care about, but it still feels weird.

[genarti]

Oh, yeah, sorry, I was unclear; I do believe that Molly really wanted to! I don't understand WHY, so I didn't find that at all relatable when I think the movie was very certain I would, but I believe that she did. But Amy clearly did not, and said so many times, and neither Molly nor the filmmakers seemed to believe that this was a valid preference or that she wouldn't be better off, in some unclear way, for the experience.

I totally agree, about the workplace dramas! Etc. It happens in books, too, where I totally understand that the underlying reason is probably that the author didn't want to juggle a bunch more characters who weren't relevant to the plot, but it's still disconcerting when somebody seems to have no friends/family/neighbors/coworkers except our plot-relevant handful, and it's not a characterization point about them being isolated or whatever.

[osprey_archer]

Sometimes it ends up making moments that are supposed to be heartwarming actually rather sad, like, these characters have no one in their lives who care about them except their work friends. Surely there could at least be a throwaway line about "Oh yeah, Mom and Dad dropped off some chicken soup," or whatever? No juggling of new characters required! Just a quick line to let us know that Jill has some social support who aren't her coworkers!