As everyone looks back on the best movie of 2019, one smaller film that should not be overlooked is Booksmart. The high school comedy was the stellar directorial debut from Olivia Wilde starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two straight-A students who decide to finally let loose the day before graduation.
The movie is one of the funniest comedies of the year, bringing new energy to the teen comedy genre. There are plenty of touching moments in the clever film, but there are also too many laugh-out-loud moments to name. Here are the funniest quotes from Booksmart.
F**k Them In Their Stupid F**king Faces.
There have been plenty of movies that focus on the "nerds or "smart kids," but Booksmart takes a very different approach to the characters. The main best friends, Molly and Amy, are proud of their intelligence and confident as young women, despite not being to cool kids.
This idea is perfectly communicated in the opening scene. As Molly prepares for school, she listens to a motivational tape, the speaker (voiced hilariously by Maya Rudolph) offers some unique advice. She says, "Stand atop the mountain of your success and look down at everyone who’s ever doubted you. F**k those losers. F**k them in their stupid f**king faces."
I'm Going To Yale Too.
The movie has a lot of fun playing with high school stereotypes and how some people can be perceived in a certain way that isn't accurate. In fact, Molly's entire motivation for having a wild last hurrah is learning that the "dumb kids" got into good post-secondary schools, just like she did.
After smugly telling off a group of slacker students that she is going to Yale, Annabelle (Molly Gordon) informs Molly she is going to Yale too. She explains, "I'm incredible at handjobs but I also got a fifteen-sixty on the SATs."
We Ask The Questions?!
Molly and Amy's quest to party predictably goes all wrong, leading them on a series of misadventures. As they desperately try to find the address to the big party, they decide to try to intimidate a pizza delivery man into giving up the address.
The plan goes belly up from the beginning as the girls us their ponytails to create strange Bane-like masks and adopt unconvincing threatening voices. The pizza delivery man is less than impressed.
Who Allowed You To Be This Beautiful?
The real charm of the story comes from the friendship between the two girls. Their unwavering support for each other is very sweet and even becomes hilarious in how carried away they can get with themselves.
When the girls are getting ready for their rare night out, they try on outfits and trade compliments. It's a fun reversal of this kind of scene as the girls go on and on praising each other's beauty with mock indignation, asking each other over and over, "Who allowed you to be this beautiful?"
Now The Ghost Spirits Live Inside My Eggs Waiting To Be Reborn.
There are plenty of hilarious side characters in the movie, but the one who stands out the most is certainly Gigi (Billie Lourd). Gigi is a rich and out-of-control student who keeps running into the girls throughout their journey.
Their first run-in with Gigi comes at a luxurious but totally empty party on a docked yacht. Gigi instantly forms a bond with Amy, even though the feeling isn't mutual. After Amy confesses to being paranoid about doing drugs, Gigi randomly relates her own story of accidentally making love in a graveyard and becoming haunted by the ghosts.
These Proportions Are Insane!
While the film could have been a pretty straight-forward and entertaining comedy, Wilde uses the opportunity to show off her skills behind the camera with some truly inventive sequences. One of the most memorable comes when the girls accidentally take drugs and see themselves as Barbie-like dolls.
The animated sequence is one-of-a-kind and also fits the personality of the girls perfectly. They are immediately outraged by the unrealistic and ridiculous physiques of their new doll bodies. It is a hilarious and clever comment on the unfair depictions of females in media.
That Came Down From Corporate.
Another fun side character in the movie is the girls' favorite cool teacher, Miss Fine (Jessica Williams). While she at first seems like the hip and progressive teacher every student would love to have, she reveals more of herself when seen outside the classroom.
The girls call Miss Fine for a ride to the party and she is fully supportive of them letting loose. She explains that she had a hard-partying past which eventually resulted in her being banned from Jamba Juice. As she explains, "Not a single Jamba Juice, like every Jamba Juice. That came down from corporate."
We'll Probably Just Do A Korean Face Mask.
The movie does a great job of depicting Amy's sexuality in a positive and respectful way. She is proudly gay and out to the world, including her parents (played by Lisa Kudrow and Will Forte), who assume that she and Molly are a couple. But while they are supportive of their daughter, they aren't totally comfortable.
When creating an alibi for their night of partying, the girls say they are having a sleepover at Molly's, and Molly can't help but have fun with the idea of the friends dating. Amy assures her parents they'll just do a Korean face mask and her mother awkwardly replies "I don't need to know all the words."
Shotgun! Just Kidding, I Don't Have One.
Though she was initially the more reluctant of the two to go wild, Amy does eventually embrace her adventurous side after Molly calls her out for never seeing things through. While Amy proves her friend wrong, she takes things a bit too far.
After the cops show up to shut down the party, Amy decides to distract them to save the others which results in her getting arrested. As the police escort her to the car, Amy makes nervous jokes and calls out "Shotgun! Just kidding, I don't have one."
Was That Cardi B?
Fans of Saturday Night Live will know Jason Sudeikis well, and enjoy whenever the funnyman pops up in projects. In Booksmart, he has a small supporting role as Principal Brown, the unenthusiastic head of the high school. And as luck would have it, he also serves as the girls' Lyft driver early in the evening.
As the girls sit in the backseat of his car, trying to avoid conversation with their former principal, Molly convinces Amy to watch pornography on her phone to learn the ropes. When the sound of the video is played through the car speakers, the girls try to frantically shut it off as Principal Brown listens in confusion to the strange sound. Finally, he asks "Was that Cardi B?"