Booksmart (2019 film)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Monosterio, May 21, 2019.

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  1. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    She probably did. If the film turned out exactly how she intended it to, then in that aspect, she did an excellent job of directing it.

    Of course, the job that a director did with a movie is also judged whether or not people want to come and see it.

    And... it makes a profit at the box office.

    For example, with the last two criteria taken into account, M. Night Shyamalan is a great director.

    People went to see his movie Glass, and it turned a huge box office profit.

    Being that movies are considered to be a commercial enterprise, it is necessary that people both attend the movie and it makes a profit.
     
  2. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    All this talk of the 'budget/gross' and the 'possible privilege/advantage' of the director of an R-rated 'teen-sex-comedy'?!?!?!?!
    What have we BECOME?!??
     
  3. Joshua Tree

    Joshua Tree Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hamburg, Germany
    Regarding the box office performance: this movie is widely available on illegal streaming and torrent sites because it is available on several Netflix sites in Europe. Just a thought. A lot of people might have not gone to the cinema because it was available for free on the net. Just a thought.
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  4. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Forum members who are discussing movies.
     
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  5. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member


    It seems you're conflating an artistic success with a financial success, and that's not an conversation I'm interested in having. Again, that metric has us questioning if Orson Welles was even a decent director. Not an approach I give a rip about. Have at it.

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
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  6. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident

    I think this film will have a long shelf life in streaming and could potentially become seen as this generation's Breakfast Club. It struck me that the film really incorporated the culture and technology of modern late teens and early 20 year olds in a way that didn't make the technology or culture a joke, but just the setting. It's tough to do this, to make a coming of age film set in a certain place and time without that place and time being played for jokes (I'm thinking Dazed and Confused). I wouldn't be surprised if in 5-10 years this film starts popping up on influential film lists of the 2010s.
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  7. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    No, I am not. I have stated both and explained the differences.

    I did state, that with regard to her artistic success as a director.

    I have never suggested that she was anything less than a capable director, artistically speaking.

    However, if someone is not successful as a director financially speaking, you probably won't be getting many opportunities to make those "artful" directing decisions in future commercially released movies.

    There are a lot of great artists out there that you have never heard of and there might be a reason for you never hearing about them.

    You can be a great writer and self publish your own books or you can have a publisher and be on a best seller list.
     
    showtaper likes this.
  8. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I found review by a 16 year old high school student:

    A Teen Reviews (and Loves) Booksmart
     
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  9. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident

    What’s true about these characters is that they do go through real life traumas or problems with friends that hurt them, and the way they try fixing it sometimes is by smoking or drinking or doing something they’ve never done before. They also do get into fights with their closest friends, but they always make up in the end. The characters in the movie are a bit different, and high school is not as fun as it looks, but the movie overall is very accurate to what goes on in the life of a teenager.
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  10. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    This film is super bad, my 22 year old daughter walked out and understandably declined to go again when I wanted to see it.

    I was hoping for an intelligent film akin to Lady Bird, what I got was the Hollywood remake, couple of funny moments but what a let down and I have to agree with my daughter, puerile.
     
  11. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Who told you to expect 'intelligence'?
    :doh:
     
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  12. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Exactly! It was a film about two academic overachievers realizing that they could have had fun during High School trying to make up for it in one night. Nothing especially deep, nothing especially meaningful.
     
    vince likes this.
  13. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
    IDK - haven't seen it and don't want to as the preview made the movie look silly. The kind of stuff that provokes nervous laughter rather than chuckles based actual humor.
     
  14. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I must be missing something, as I don't understand why it couldn't be done well, unless it's mandatory if it's a teen movie?
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  15. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Your use of the word 'well' is relative'.....
    Some people just don't like 'teen-sex-comedies'....
    I get that!.....
    Most people like alcohol.....
    I don't get that....
     
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  16. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I thought it was done well, the people at film festivals thought it was done well, a huge percentage of film critics thought it was done well... and your daughter didn't.
     
  17. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    I would venture to say 'expectation' plays a part in people's opinions, when it come to certain movies, you know?
    Sometimes, something gets 'over-hyped', and I go in with a 'I'll-be-the-judge' attitude..
    other times, I've been told how awful a film is, then, find myself defending the film....sometimes liking it!
    ..all relative....
     
  18. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Really? I'm not a fan of "cringe humor" and didn't see much of that in Booksmart. The two main characters were flawed and a bit awkward, but they cared for each other and finally came to realize things about themselves and their classmates, blah, blah, blah. Not to doom it by overpraising it, but it was as honest about high school today as anything by John Hughes or Cameron Crowe in their time.
     
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  19. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    No problem with sex or the bad language comedy but it seemed to me a film made by adults who think teenagers are so shallow and there's not much new or funny about that.

    Given all the positive reviews in the UK I though I was going to see a very different film, I'm probably just a grumpy old man with too little alcohol
     
  20. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Well....these ARE Americans wer'e talking about here.....
     
  21. PhilBorder

    PhilBorder Senior Member

    Location:
    Sheboygan, WI
    Yeah, I gather its a better film than the trailer suggests. But the way it was sold probably meant it missed part of its audience .
     
    Chris DeVoe likes this.
  22. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    It is. The trailer gave me absolutely no idea what this movie would be like. I only went to see it after word of mouth got around.
     
  23. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I restrained myself, as I didn't think I'd get away with that one, although I do doubt the U.S. is that different from here.
     
  24. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    People at film festival's are not your typical neighborhood theater crowd, no are the movies they show.

    Gay themed movies are always popular at film festival's, more so than with the general public.

    But then, there are a lot of movies that are popular at film festival's that would never have commercial theatrical potential at the box office.

    They premier at film festivals, if you ever happen to see most of them again, it is on streaming or home media.

    So here you have a the class Valedictorian and her brilliant friend and in their four years of H.S. they hadn't figured any of this out?

    I don't think people expect anything that is deep or meaningful from a teen movie.

    Still, I think that they expect a better more relatable teen movie than this one, which even teen audiences apparently did not find relatable.

    Teen movies are not a new genera, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were making successful teen movies in the late 1930's.

    [​IMG]

    Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello were making teen beach movies during the early 60's.

    [​IMG]

    In the 70's, we had Grease.

    There were plenty of successful teen movies in the eighties, like Can't Buy Me Love, which brought in over 30M, over thirty years ago!

    [​IMG]

    In the nineties, we had Empire Records, with a domestic box office of over 250M.

    After the millenia, we have had hugely successful teen movies like Juno and franchise movies like Harry Potter or the Twilight Saga.

    [​IMG]

    Just this year, we had a little talked about and little hyped quality movie, Five Feet Apart, that did 80M at the box office world wide.
    [​IMG]
    Seeing, that it is not even a smash hit with the high school and post high school crowd. Who undoubtedly are well aware of the movie, their their friends and social media.

    I doubt if it is representative of today's H.S. crowd in ways that they can personally identify with it.

    I don't think that you can even come close to comparing this movie to anything that John Hughes ever did.

    All these other teen movies were relatable to teen audiences, Booksmart was not.

    America is world famous for it's relatable teen movies.

    Being that I am a few years out of H.S. myself. I wonder if you would ask your daughter if Booksmart is comparable to today's H.S. experiences as she has experienced them.

    And, just out of further curiosity, since the Breakfast Club was long before your daughter's time, I would be curious as to her opinion if the Breakfast Club is any closer to what she would envision a teen movie about H.S. being?
     
  25. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Teenage movies are mostly shallow. They are meant to be entertaining, not to explain the meaning of life, which is better left for a Monty Python movie.

    [​IMG]

    No, the critic's consensus on this movie is beyond idiotic, comparing it to other movies that have been warmly received by the general public.

    [​IMG]
     
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