Superbad Good!

Olivia Wilde makes her directorial debut with sharp high-school comedy Booksmart – a girl-power spiritual successor to Superbad that got rave reviews at SXSW. The self-confessed film geek tells Total Film about having a strict no-asshole policy, how far she’s come from The O.C. and how she’s putting her money where her mouth is for a better female filmmaking future.

- Jane Crowther

On the day that the news is bleak with terrorist acts in New Zealand, Total Film hooks up with Olivia Wilde in LA where the NY resident is wrapping up editing promotional material for her first feature-length film in the director’s chair. It’s the sort of breaking news that makes one despair at the state of the world and the ruination of younger generations. But Wilde is optimistic about the compassion and intellect of movie audiences who have embraced her coming-of-age teen comedy, Booksmart, which exhibits the same kindness and positivity found at the heart of other recent zeitgeist school-set laffers such as Lady Bird and Eighth Grade.

Like those films, Booksmart charts multi-dimensional young women through formative experiences via tart comedy, recognisable emotional beats and a fond lens. That trend (with similar titles Good Boys and Mid90s incoming) is a “direct reflection” of a more sophisticated audience and community, according to Wilde. “The younger generation are operating in such a different way. They’re demanding higher standards – they are demanding to be set free from a binary way of thinking in terms of sexuality, gender and politics. They are, in so many ways, so much more evolved than we were,” she says – having just celebrated her 35th birthday days before we meet.

“And because audiences are finding great content on television, they’re proving that they are more intelligent and more eager for character pieces than studios may have assumed before. People are actively seeking out things that feel more authentic and intelligent – they don’t want to be defined in overly simplified ways, they want to have fun without being pandered to or patronised.”