Watch out: geeky girls are about!

Booksmart (16) Verdict: Coming-of-age-comedy ★★★★☆

JUST when you thought you couldn’t stand another American high school misfit comedy, with clichéd mean girls, jocks and a prom, along comes Booksmart to refresh the genre.

Irish-American Actress Olivia Wilde has taken to the director’s chair with aplomb, helming a hilarious, tender and quietly revolutionary movie starring Beanie Feldstein as Molly, and Kaitlyn Dever as Amy, two high-school seniors so swotty they have failed to party at all. Thus, on the last night before graduation, they have to cram a year’s-worth of misbehaviour into an evening.

The 18-year-olds look, on the surface, like losers. They are the epitome of uncool and damn happy about it: geekily feminist, they outsmart their classmates, and have university places awaiting at Yale and Columbia.

So when the girls make a desperate attempt ‘to experience a seminal fun anecdote’ — and also get laid — it’s like a high-IQ version of The Hangover. Stolen roadsters, projectile vomit, bathroom bonking, a pizza-driver heist, and a police raid all feature, as they must, as well as a passionate crush in every sense on a toy panda.

Whatever happens, the girls are always aware of the irony of each moment, and when things go insanely wrong, their friendship is unrelenting. In particular, Feldstein has a powerful screen presence, as she did playing a best friend to Saoirse Ronan in the similar Lady Bird, and she will be the lead in Caitlin Moran’s upcoming How To Build A Girl.