Booksmart (Members’ Choice) Director: Olivia Wilde. USA, 2019. 102 min. Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Lisa Kudrow Booksmart showcases two young rising stars: Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird’s best friend, and younger sister of actor/director Jonah Hill) plays the ambitious, bossy high school student Molly, a performance which earned her a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination; Kaitlyn Dever (also Golden Globe nominated, for her role in the acclaimed Netflix TV series Unbelievable), her best friend Amy. The film is director Olivia Wilde’s debut feature after a 10 year unofficial apprenticeship acting on TV and film sets, learning her craft from filmmakers including Spike Jonze & Martin Scorsese. Her break came when friend and producer Jessica Elbaum suggested she direct a script which after revisions (four screenwriters, all female, are credited as co-writers) became Booksmart. Wilde secured the gig by pitching to the studio her vision of the film as a celebration of Generation Z, growing up in “this demented political situation … incorporating politics into their daily life.” Wilde is herself an active Democrat (a family tradition - her grandfather was the famous British left-wing journalist Claud Cockburn, and her mother ran unsuccessfully for Congress) and knows the pressure high-achieving students can experience, having attended the prestigious Phillips Academy (alumni include both Presidents Bush), which she describes as being “full of Mollys.” “Booksmart’s dialogue is fast, funny and feminist, sometimes to a fault … Dever and Feldstein sell the pair’s charged, codependent dynamic … Wilde expertly modulates the giddy highs and bittersweet lows of being a teenager” Simran Hans, Observer Winner Best First Feature Film at Independent Spirit Awards, & Rotten Tomatoes ‘Golden Tomato’ as Best Reviewed Comedy of 2019; nominated for Best Screenplay BAFTA. Tear between the dotted lines below to show many stars you give the film, & hand in. Please write any comments on the back of this slip. You can also comment via social media (FB, Insta @wimbledonfilm, Twitter @wfcscreenings); or by sending a review for our website blog to [email protected]. _________________________________________________________________________ .