✨This Weeks Top Picks - Movies!✨
I first saw Booksmart in 2020, and when researching it for this post I couldn’t believe that it had only come out a year prior in 2019. This film managed to stay in the conversation in such a way, that when I finally saw it it felt like I’d been hearing about it for years already.
The directorial debut for Olivia Wilde, it follows best friends Molly Davidson (played by queer actor Beanie Feldstein) and Amy Antsler (Kaitlyn Dever), two academically gifted but pretentious students, as they decide to go to a party on the night before graduation. While the movie follows a lot of coming of age tropes, it manages to evolve the genre by treating its wide cast of quirky side characters with a non judgemental lens, and even characters that seem flat at the start gain dimension as we and the main characters learn more about them. By the time the film starts, Amy is already out as a lesbian to her peers and the drama comes from the fact she’s had a girlfriend. Her sexuality is treated as no big deal, which is a nice normalisation of homosexuals in the genre.
Booksmart is truly an instant classic, and a comedy I wouldn’t sleep on.
Coming-of-Age Comedy DATING AMBER is a poignant, honest and funny look at the highs and lows of teenage life where the only way to fit in is to not be yourself, even if this goes against your very being. Set-in Ireland during the mid-90’s, Eddie and Amber (both 17) are in the closet about their sexuality and decide to stage a relationship in order to stop everyone speculating. Eddie is keen to follow his Dad into the military, while Amber dreams of moving to the liberal hub of London. However, their ‘ideal’ arrangement begins to fall apart, forcing Eddie deeper into denial as Amber realises that a perilous future awaits her best friend unless she intervenes.
I watched this film recently and it’s already become a favourite of mine and one that I recommend everyone to watch!
✨JOIN US ON FRIDAY THE 25TH JUNE FOR A NETFLIX WATCH PARTY VIA TELEPARTY OF BOOKSMART! WATCH IT WITH US AND FIND OUT WHY WE LOVE IT SO MUCH! ✨
