69Booksmart (2019)

Two teenage overachievers realize they’ve wasted their youth on schoolwork, and decide to have one epic night before graduation, in classic buddy-movie tradition. And this time, in a delightful update to the genre, the buddies are girls. Booksmart itself collected accolades while it sat on the shelf for a decade, and underwent several iterations, before co-writer Katie Silberman’s draft got the greenlight. She didn’t have to go far for inspiration. “I was a real Molly in high school,” she admits in Indiewire, naming one of the uptight protagonists. “I convinced myself it was because I was doing the responsible thing. Then I got to college and saw all the kids who I thought were just partying in more advanced classes than I was. I was like, ‘Wait a second, what have I done?’ In a lot of ways I pitched a story that was wish fulfillment for me.”