Booksmart (2019)

(Amazon Streaming, December 2020) While I’ll be among the first to bemoan the excessive coarseness of today’s crop of comedy films, I also have to recognize when something works. Booksmart, for all of its raunchy foul-mouthed riot-nrrd female empowerment protagonists going out of their way to be offensive and crude, is reliably funny from beginning to end. Much of the credit for this success goes to Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein for playing a couple of best friends out to have a memorable night on the town: Their obvious rapport is delivered in high-energy fashion, through a crucial 24-hour period that goes to the extremes. Actor-turned-first-time-director Olivia Wilde also manages to nail a tricky tone that balances in-your-face excesses with a solid core of cute sentiment. Booksmart so closely embraces left-wing values of the late 2010s that I’m not sure how well it’s going to age – but then again, I’m not sure how well I’m going to age, and that means not being so quick to tut-tut the younger generations for making their own mistakes. In the meantime, we’ve got a teen comedy that pushes the envelope, sustains a fast-paced rhythm, stars two terrific performances and overcomes its grossest moments with old-school values. I’ll take it: at least it’s not another formulaic superhero film with nothing to say.