Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut is this teenage comedy starring Beanie Feldstein as Molly and Kaitlyn Dever as Amy, two high school seniors and best friends.
They have spent their school years concentrating on academics and getting admitted to a good college. Molly will be attending Yale and Amy is going to Columbia. They’re not one of the cool kids in fact, they march to the beat of their own drum, so to speak.
But, the girls don’t seem to care that they’re not popular. In fact, they make fun of their classmates and are ok being themselves. They are so pleased with themselves that while the other kids spent most of their time drinking, partying and running after the opposite sex, they can look forward to attending a great college in the fall.
But, their world is crushed when Molly finds out that some of the very kids she thinks are losers, have been accepted into Ivy League schools also. So, all of their studying and time spent at the library didn’t make a difference in the end. She tells Amy that they’re going to go to the biggest party the night before graduation and make up for lost time.
The two stars are terrific. Their characters are quirky, smart and funny, When the audience first meets them, they spontaneously break out in dance before getting in the car to drive to school. The dance doesn’t seem coordinated, but it’s silly and fits their personalities. Also, right in the middle of talking about something, they will stop mid-sentence and compliment each other on how they look. The actresses have terrific timing so that you believe that they have really been best friends for years.
The girls truly like each other and don’t care about what the other kids think about them. Now those are the parts that I really liked about the film. The parts I didn’t like was the teen drinking, drug use, bad language and explicit sex talk. The (R) rating seems to prohibit the very audience that would benefit from this comedy. A film that stresses being who you are, and liking yourself just the way you are, is a great message to spread.