Booksmart          4 ½ stars

In what may be the funniest movie of the summer, Booksmart takes us a wild ride with two young female best friends who decide to have one night of fun (i.e. partying, sex and drugs) before high school graduation after having spent their school years focusing on studies and getting into the college of their choice.  It’s a formula that we’ve seen plenty of times before but with a very feminist bent to it.  The film pulls it off with a series of comedic pieces involving conflicts with other characters, failed attempts at finding the secret location of the ultimate teenage party and a strange encounter with the school principal that includes porn videos.  The story written and directed by women, including director Olivia Wilde feels mostly authentic though some of the characters are stereotypes (like the high school drama kids).  The two lead girls are well suited for the roles of Amy and Molly, (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein), both of whom I have seen in previous roles despite their young ages.  It feels like they really are best friends, but with some personal issues between them that are eventually revealed late in the movie.  I did like the fact that most of the high school characters don’t hold ill feelings against Molly in spite of her attitude of superiority being the class President.  There is one notable exception being Gigi played by Billie Lourd who mysteriously keeps showing up at the most opportune times and would like to spoil all the fun for them.  Though the movie can be described as a raunchy comedy the friendship and conflict between the two lead characters seems authentic and is a well written aspect of the film.  I recommend that you see Booksmart when you have the chance.