A film like “Booksmart” lives and dies by its two central performances. Beannie Feldstein (Lady Bird) and Kaitlyn Dever (Short Term 12), respectively, play Molly and Amy, two upcoming high school graduates that have built up their own hermit-like worldview together. It’s not like they are anything like the central character in Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” who had to fend her miserable experience all by herself, no, Molly and Amy are two peas in a pod, they are the kind of inseperable friends that complete each other’s sentences and are content with hanging out in their rooms instead of going out and socializing with the rest of their classroom. And yet, they do have a rapport with the rest of their classmates, it’s very apparent in the classroom sequences where the cliches that may have once been apparent in John Hughes and teen movies from the ‘90s completely evaporate. There is no bully, there is no jock, there is no cool kid, the stereotypes are not there and that is incredibly refreshing to witness.
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