Olivia Wilde’s electric feature debut, “Booksmart,” is a high school comedy with witty dialogue, eye-catching cinematography and swift editing.  Molly, a type-A bookworm obsessed with being the top of her class, and her best friend Amy, a quieter if no less driven feminist activist, worked hard to get into good colleges. When Molly finds out that their less studious classmates have also gotten into the same prestigious schools, it shatters her understanding of the world. Instead of enjoying their usual quiet night in, Molly convinces Amy to dress up -– they’re going to party at least once before they walk across that graduation stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhd3lo_IWJc

We ride the highs and lows of Molly and Amy’s odyssey through Los Angeles at breakneck speeds but nothing feels lost. We get a sense of their deep friendship, much like the two best friends at the center of 2007’s “Superbad.” They tease each other, they have their own shared language, like using the name Malala to ask each other for help, and rituals like over-complimenting each other’s outfits.

As wonderful as it was to watch a movie about strong and supportive female friendships, it was just as refreshing to see it set in a high school that’s full of diverse students, different sexual orientations and gender expressions. The supporting cast is just as wonderfully funny as the stars and is given something more to do than be the token high school stereotypes. In fact, many of Molly’s first impressions of her classmates turn out to be wrong, and while their characters may not get the full in-depth exploration, they weren’t reduced to one trait or reductive punchline.