"Booksmart" and "Always Be My Maybe"

Aside from being comedies and employing the talents of music producer Dan the Automator, these two movies don't have much in common, but I liked both of them, and I think they need more spotlight.

"Booksmart" is a teens behaving badly comedy, one that features best friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein). The two are straightlaced overachievers, who decide to throw caution to the wind and go to a wild party the night before graduation. Getting there, however, is another matter. So begins a "Superbad" style nocturnal journey that follows the girls through one detour after another as they search for their last chance at high school hedonism.

I identified with the leads in a way that typically don't in teen comedies. These two are aren't stereotypically cool or attractive and aren't obsessed with status. The people they have crushes on aren't the obvious catches either. However, they're smart, endearing, and have a lot of strong screen chemistry together. Frankly, the whole movie is refreshingly free of easy labels, and goes out of its way to subvert expectations for the few that do crop up. Amy is a lesbian, but it's a non-issue with her overprotective parents. The rich kid is an asocial loser and treated as such. The popular, promiscuous girl suffers the worst of the bullying. Nobody is subjected to a makeover. Everyone has to deal with rejection and gets called out on their flaws, Molly and Amy in particular.

Directed by Olivia Wilde with a cast full of up-and-comers, "Booksmart" feels very 2019. It's not just that the girls get around town by calling Lyft and follow party updates on social media. It's not that they drop recent pop culture references left and right and use "Malala" as an emergency code word. It's that the film doesn't make any apologies for or feel self-conscious at all about being a raunchy teen comedy starring teenage girls. The attitudes of everyone toward sex and alcohol and partying are more measured, and the girls themselves are largely happy in their own skins and identities. Wilde and crew don't do anything too noteworthy with the filmmaking, but they give Dever and Feldstein plenty of room to sell their banter, and there are some neat gags. The animated Barbie doll sequence is a special highlight.

Moving on, "Always Be My Maybe" is a typical piece of goofy, romantic-comedy wish fulfillment, one that happens to feature two Asian-American leads and takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ali Wong and Randall Kim play Sasha and Marcus respectively, who grew up together as kids and were briefly involved before going their separate ways for sixteen years. Sasha is now a celebrity chef, engaged to Brandon (Daniel Dae Kim), and comes back to San Francisco to open a new restaurant. Marcus is now dating Jenny (Vivian Bang) and looking after his aging father (James Saito). When the pair reconnect, the sparks are still there, but their lifestyles clash.

I went into this movie a fan of Ali Wong, and came out a fan of Randall Park too. Wong is fine in the movie, but her screen persona is distinctly more hard edged than the usual romantic comedy leading lady, and occasionally it feels like there's a bit of a mismatch with the cuddly tone. She's good with the more comedic material, but every time the movie wants her to be more heartfelt, it feels forced. Park, on the other hand, is a sitcom veteran and perfect schlubby, everyman, and feels far more comfortable here. The conceit of him fronting a band and writing nerdy hip-hop songs yields so many good things, including my favorite end credits song of all time.

Speaking of which, "Always Be My Maybe" is destined to be forever remembered for its celebrity cameo about halfway through the movie, one I didn't know was coming and was absolutely bowled over by. It is the best part of the movie by far and elevates it to a surreal high for about fifteen minutes. I don't feel that this spoiler is too objectionable, because knowing that a big cameo is coming will make more people want to see the movie. And the movie is worth seeing, if you're at all a fan of romantic comedies. Directed by Nanatchka Khan, best known for creating "Fresh Off the Boat," the plotting is familiar stuff, but there's a welcome subversive bent and cultural authenticity to it. And it's so good to see Wong and Park in starring roles that have been long overdue.



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