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osprey_archerBack 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 07:48 pm (UTC)