ⓘ Details

Movie TitleBooksmart

Release DateMay 24, 2019 in the United States

TaglineGetting straight A’s. Giving zero F’s.

Runtime102 minutes / 1 hour 42 minutes

DirectorOlivia Wilde

Screenplay Written ByEmily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman

Based OnOriginal screenplay

Is It a Remake?No. Booksmart is an original coming-of-age comedy.

BudgetApproximately $6 million

Box OfficeApprox. $22.7 million domestic / approx. $25.0 million worldwide

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👥 Main Cast

Kaitlyn DeverAmy Antsler

Beanie FeldsteinMolly Davidson

Jessica WilliamsMiss Fine

Jason SudeikisPrincipal Brown

Lisa KudrowCharmaine Antsler

Will ForteDoug Antsler

Billie LourdGigi

Skyler GisondoJared

Diana SilversHope

Molly GordonTriple A

Noah GalvinGeorge

Austin CruteAlan

Victoria RuesgaRyan

Mason GoodingNick

Eduardo FrancoTheo

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🏆 Awards

⭐ Independent Spirit Award Winner — Best First Feature

⭐ GLAAD Media Award Winner — Outstanding Film, Wide Release

⭐ Golden Globe Nominee — Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, Beanie Feldstein

⭐ BAFTA Nominee — Best Original Screenplay

⭐ BAFTA Rising Star Award Nominee — Kaitlyn Dever

⭐ Austin Film Critics Association Winner — Best First Film

⭐ No Academy Award nominations were verified for the film.

⭐ Its long-term legacy is as one of the most acclaimed teen comedies of the 2010s and Olivia Wilde’s feature directorial debut.

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📖 Short Plot Summary

Molly and Amy have spent high school doing everything right: studying hard, avoiding trouble, building stacked college resumes, and judging everyone else for not being as focused. Then they discover their partying classmates also got into great schools, which sends Molly into a full academic-existential meltdown. Determined to make up for four years of missed fun in one night, the best friends chase the ultimate graduation party through rideshares, wrong addresses, awkward crushes, accidental drug trips, emotional blowups, and the terrifying realization that maybe they never had their classmates completely figured out.

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❝ Key Quotes

“Nobody knows that we are fun.” — Molly Davidson

“We are smart and fun.” — Molly Davidson

“Malala.” — Amy and Molly

“You guys are in incredible shape.” — Amy Antsler

“I’m incredible at hand jobs.” — Amy Antsler

“Getting straight A’s. Giving zero F’s.” — Tagline

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💡 Trivia

Director

Booksmart was directed by Olivia Wilde in her feature directorial debut.
The screenplay is credited to Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman.
Wilde won several breakthrough-director honors for the film, including the Hollywood Film Award for Breakthrough Director.
The movie helped establish Wilde as a director with a strong eye for ensemble comedy, visual energy, music-driven sequences, and emotionally grounded chaos.

Cast / Casting

Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein star as Amy and Molly, the two overachieving best friends at the center of the story.
Olivia Wilde encouraged Dever and Feldstein to spend time together before filming to strengthen their friendship chemistry.
IMDb trivia notes that Wilde encouraged cast members to adjust dialogue if it felt inauthentic to their characters.
Billie Lourd’s Gigi became one of the film’s biggest scene-stealers, popping up in increasingly ridiculous places throughout the night.
The adult supporting cast includes Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Williams, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, and Mike O’Brien.

Soundtrack / Score

Dan the Automator composed the film’s music.
The soundtrack mixes comedy energy, party momentum, emotional sincerity, and coming-of-age anxiety.
The music choices help keep the movie feeling modern, messy, and youth-driven without turning every scene into a standard teen-comedy needle drop.
The party and travel sequences use music to make the one-night structure feel bigger, faster, and more chaotic.

Location

The story is set in Southern California.
Filming took place around Los Angeles-area locations, including Los Angeles, Glendale, Pasadena, Marina del Rey, and San Fernando Senior High School.
Locations used for the film included school spaces, neighborhood streets, party houses, a pizza place, and coastal areas.
The sunny California setting contrasts nicely with Molly and Amy’s total lack of social chill.

Behind-The-Scenes

The film was produced by Megan Ellison, Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfield, Jessica Elbaum, and Katie Silberman.
Booksmart premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2019.
United Artists Releasing released the film theatrically in the United States on May 24, 2019.
Box Office Mojo lists the film’s production budget at $6 million.
Box Office Mojo lists the worldwide total at $24,959,607, with $22,680,962 from the domestic market.

Nostalgia

Booksmart quickly became part of the modern teen-comedy conversation alongside titles like Superbad, Lady Bird, and The Edge of Seventeen.
The movie updates the “one wild night before graduation” formula with sharper friendship stakes and a more inclusive ensemble.
Its emotional core is not just partying, but the fear that you built your whole identity around being right and still missed the point.
The film’s mix of absurd comedy, friendship drama, queer coming-of-age material, and academic panic gives it strong rewatch value for modern teen-comedy fans.

Easter Eggs

The “Malala” code word turns Nobel-level moral pressure into a ridiculous best-friend override button.
The doll sequence is one of the movie’s strangest stylistic breaks, turning the night into a surreal panic spiral.
Gigi’s impossible appearances make her feel less like a normal classmate and more like the chaotic party goblin of the movie.
The film plays with high-school stereotypes by revealing that nearly every character is more complicated than Molly and Amy assumed.
The title works as both a description of Molly and Amy’s academic identity and a joke about how little life experience their “smartness” has actually given them.

Misc.

Booksmart is rated R.
The film runs 102 minutes.
Rotten Tomatoes named Booksmart one of the best-reviewed comedies of its decade.
In 2021, Writers Guild members ranked the screenplay among the 101 greatest screenplays of the 21st century so far.
Your 3 Guys and a Flick ratings page lists Booksmart as Episode 55, with Don rating it 4.25, Ken rating it 3.00, Jon rating it 4.00, and an overall rating of 3.75.

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