{"id":18372,"date":"2019-05-23T12:02:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T19:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18372"},"modified":"2019-05-23T12:02:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T19:02:22","slug":"booksmart-provides-enough-laughs-to-earn-a-good-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18372","title":{"rendered":"BOOKSMART Provides Enough Laughs to Earn a Good Grade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/24_0008_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10620\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past thirty years, there have been more than a few\ncoming-of-age teen comedies. The latest arrival is <em>Booksmart<\/em>, another\ntale of young people spending their graduation night on the town and attempting\nto find some kind of closure for this chapter of their lives. This wild comedy\nisn&#8217;t perfect and follows some of the typical tropes, but does provide a good\nhelping of laughs, thanks to efforts of its two leads and supporting cast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Booksmart-lockers-1024x624.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18373\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are stellar\nstudents at their high school excited to start the next chapter in their lives,\nbut are less successful at navigating social cliques. When Molly criticizes her\nclassmates for their relaxed attitude and boasts that she&#8217;s going to Yale, she\nlearns that the other teens are leaving for equally prestigious institutes like\nGeorgetown, Harvard and Stanford.\nThe pair begin to regret their choices and set out to make up for lost time by\nattending a big graduation party and hooking up with their crushes. Unfortunately,\nthey have no address and must scramble around town to try and get to the\nshindig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Booksmart-party-in-school-hall-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18374\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Credit must be given to young Dever and Feldstein as the two\nprotagonists. Early on, their characters are, well, a bit grating (particularly\nMolly who carries an air of superiority) and one can actually understand why\nsome of the students behave dismissively towards them. Thankfully, when they&#8217;re\ntogether, far more normal and relatable conversations occur, generating plenty\nof laughs with more naturalistic and improvised chatter (including a funny\nAutoharp song). When the film travels inside the character&#8217;s heads, there are\nother effective gags, including an imagined exchange between one of the\nprotagonists and the object of their affection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The movie features plenty of familiar faces in supporting\nroles as well, including some amusing run ins after class with a favorite\nteacher (Jessica Williams) and the school Principal (Jason Sudeikis), which\nresults in one of the biggest laughs in the feature. Perhaps the most\nentertaining exchange comes as the pair attempt to threaten and extract\ninformation from a Pizza Guy (Mike O&#8217;Brien) who has just delivered pies to the\ndesired locale. And there&#8217;s a good running joke involving a stuffed panda bear\nthat pays off effectively during the movie&#8217;s final scenes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Booksmart-driving-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18376\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As mentioned, this reviewer did have a few minor issues. While all of the material mentioned above works well, not every joke or conversation lands quite as effectively. And, of course, there are certain genre conventions that are followed, including a turn into more dramatic territory as the pairs have a fight amongst themselves and shout their grievances at one another. And despite some of the unfortunate events that occur, events are tied up perfectly, and all of the kids seem completely at ease with each other by the close. It&#8217;s hard to believe given the interactions and animosity between some of the cliques that everyone would be quite so forgiving the following day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Booksmart-pole-1024x611.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18377\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, these are the conventions of the genre, and at least the film occasionally attempts to spin a few elements in a slightly different way. In the end, <em>Booksmart<\/em> may not be the best coming-of-age movie around, but it is a solid comedy that should provide entertainment value for its target demographic and perhaps even a chuckle or two for those who haven&#8217;t been to class in a few years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past thirty years, there have been more than a few coming-of-age teen comedies. The latest arrival is Booksmart, another tale of young people spending their graduation night on the town and attempting to find some kind of closure for this chapter of their lives. This wild comedy isn&#8217;t perfect and follows some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,2397,3310,4660,4693,7533,8559,10441,10665,11415,13940,14317,15749,16941,19651,24256],"class_list":["post-18372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-beanie-feldstein","tag-booksmart","tag-comedy","tag-coming-of-age","tag-film-review","tag-graduation","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-jessica-williams","tag-kaitlyn-dever","tag-mike-obrien","tag-movie-review","tag-party","tag-review","tag-teen","tag-wild"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}