Girls on Film

A Critical Discourse Analysis on the Screenplay of Booksmart (2019)

Hanna Rapo

Malmö University
Media & Communication Studies: Culture, Collaborative Media and Creative Industries
One-Year Master thesis 15 credits
Submitted: October 2021
Supervisor: Signe Ivas
Figure 1 - Booksmart (2019) illustration

Abstract
This study takes a closer look at the screenplay of the 2019 coming-of-age film,
Booksmart. Using critical discourse analysis, and Fairclough’s three-dimensional
method, it examines the way girls are portrayed based on the screenplay and its
audience reviews.
The main theories used in order to find the right perspective for this analysis, are
Steiner’s (2014) feminist media theory. Gendered Language theories are also taken into
account in order to find the right components in the text, such as word choices in the
dialogue. Previous studies used to guide this study include Henesy (2020), Yue (2019),
Shapiro (2017), Edwards (2016) and Nairn et. al. (2014).
Using gendered language, performed gender and feminist values to decode the
screenplay, the findings of this study show that the choices made in the screenplay of
Booksmart (2019) are to distinguish the difference between the two female protagonists.
The main component being how they deliver their dialogue and how certain
characteristics in both conversation and personality can change the power dynamic
between the two protagonists. The film also manages to split its audience into two
groups: the ones who hate it, and the ones who love it.

Keywords: CDA, FCDA, Feminist Media Theory, Female representation in Media,

Female representation in Film, Film reviews, Screenplay analysis, gendered language

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 5

1.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM................................................................................................................ 5

1.2 RESEARCH PARADIGMS ............................................................................................................ 6
1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................. 6

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 7

2.1 PREVIOUS STUDIES ................................................................................................................... 8

2.2 SOCIETAL BACKGROUND........................................................................................................ 10
2.2.1 Girlhood .............................................................................................................................. 10
2.2.2 Coming-of-age Genre ........................................................................................................ 11
2.2.3 Female representation in film ........................................................................................... 12
2.3 STEINER’S FEMINIST MEDIA THEORY (INTERSECTIONALITY REMOVED) ........................... 15
2.4 GENDER DISCOURSE: GENDERED LANGUAGE ...................................................................... 18
2.5 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE .................................. 19

3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 20

3.1 CDA & FAIRCLOUGH’S THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL......................................................... 20

3.2 FCDA ...................................................................................................................................... 22

4. DATA................................................................................................................................... 23

4.1 DATA COLLECTION AND RESEARCH PROCESS ...................................................................... 23

4.2 DATA SAMPLES ....................................................................................................................... 25
4.2.1 Breakdown of Selected Scenes .......................................................................................... 25
4.2.2 Audience Ratings and Reviews .......................................................................................... 29

5. ETHICS ............................................................................................................................... 32

6. ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................... 33

6.1 TEXT ANALYSIS OF BOOKSMART (2019) ............................................................................... 33

6.1.1 Gendered Language ........................................................................................................... 34
6.1.2 Performed Gender .............................................................................................................. 35
6.1.3 Feminist Values.................................................................................................................. 36
6.2 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF BOOKSMART (2019) ....................................................................... 38
6.3 SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF BOOKSMART (2019) ........................................................... 40

7. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 41
7.1 LIMITATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 44
7.2 FURTHER STUDIES AND FINAL REMARKS .............................................................................. 44

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 46

APPENDIX I ......................................................................................................................................... 49
APPENDIX II ....................................................................................................................................... 53
APPENDIX III...................................................................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX IV ...................................................................................................................................... 63

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List of figures:
Figure 1 – Booksmart (2019) illustration by Hanna Rapo

Figure 2 – Fairclough’s three-dimensional model

Figure 3 – Fairclough’s three-dimensional model in this study

Figure 3 – Freytag’s pyramid and the selected scenes

List of Tables:

Table 1 – Audience Ratings by vote / number of stars on IMDb. October 2021.

Table 2 – Table of film reviews on IMDb as of October 2021

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1. Introduction
In 2021 the feminist movement has received major traction amongst mainstream media,
with online campaigns and hashtags (#MeToo, #TimesUp) gaining traction on multiple
platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. The movement has had a major
impact on media, and the entire entertainment industry. With female leads making sure
they get paid the same as their male co-stars do (#TimesUp 2018, Robehmed 2015), and
overall having more inclusive film sets, the film industry is gaining a broader
representation (Washington, 2019). For this thesis, I intend to investigate how modern
coming-of-age films portray teenage girls, as relevant media representation of them is
crucial for modern film making.

In order to investigate how girls are represented in modern film I will conduct a
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a 2019-released film with two female
protagonists: Booksmart. I intend to study the representation by analysing four selected
scenes of the screenplay, using the perspective of feminist media theory and gendered
language, as well as incorporating audience reviews in order to see how the audience
felt about the film and how it represents teenage girls.

1.1 Research Problem

The way girls are represented in media, and more specifically in film, is crucial to their
self-image, and by having an accurate representation that they can relate to is a massive
form of validation to insecure teenagers, who are unsure of themselves. Whereas boys
have been represented in vast forms of different characters with personalities and
backstories, girls’ characters tend to be shallower and fall into stereotypes, which is
harmful to society as a whole.

In order to answer these research questions, I will analyse what kind of word and
phrasing choices are made in the screenplay to portray the female protagonists. I will
conduct the analysis by critically assessing the screenplay. The analysis of the
screenplay focuses on three main aspects of female portrayal: feminist values, gendered
language and performed gender.

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As female representation in media is important to consumers, especially when it comes
to young women and girls, the importance of this representation in film should be
highlighted and approached as an equally vital attribute to the issue of diversity in
media. The difference between the representation between male and female characters
is vast: while male characters tend to get complex and intriguing backstories and
meaningful character arcs, female characters tend to be left with shallow development
and character arcs that support their male counterparts. This incomplete representation
of female characters can be very damaging to young girls who try to relate to these
characters. Concluding to forming false ideals and misleading expectations of what
growing up as a girl in society is really like.

1.2 Research Paradigms

For a research paradigm, I decided that the most fit for this study would be the critical
theory paradigms. As CDA focuses on finding the inequalities in text that reflect the
socio-cultural environment of the discourse, the best fit research paradigm I see fit for
this study is the critical realist paradigm. This also supports the process of CDA:”
description, interpretation and explanation” (Simpson et. al. 2019: 119). As both of
these perspectives focus on decoding the data by taking into consideration the societal
environment it takes place in and “reading between the lines” and exposing the hidden
meanings (Simpson et. al. 2019: 117). Much like CDA, critical realist paradigm aims to
observe patterns “to establish the existence of underlying explanatory structures and
mechanisms” (Blaikie et. al. 2017: 38). I believe these two perspectives will be the best
combination for this study, as the oppression and discrimination of women and girls is a
social inequality that should be researched in the right context.

1.1 Research Questions

The aim of this study is to see, how girls are represented in modern films of the coming-
of-age genre. In order to answer the research questions to the extent I want my findings
to reflect, and because I will be using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for this
critical discourse analysis, I will introduce three research questions that will aid my
investigation and narrow down my perspective for my analysis:

RQ 1: How are modern female protagonists portrayed in the screenplay of Booksmart

(2019) based on audience reviews and screenplay analysis?

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 RQ 2: What do the audience reviews reveal about the film’s reception?

RQ 3: How are the two female protagonists portrayed in the screenplay based on
gendered language, feminist values and performed gender?

The aim of each RQ is to fit into the three-dimensional model (Fairclough, 1995). The
first RQ is looking into the socio-cultural discourse of the subject, the second one
focusing on discourse practice, and the last one is to guide the text analysis and provide
a specific perspective and guidelines to completing the analysis. I wanted to focus the
study on how teenage girls are represented in the text, which led me to finding key
elements that formulate female presence in text: gendered language, performed gender
and feminist values.

2. Literature Review
As for the relevant theories used for the critical discourse analysis, I am using
Fairclough’s three-dimensional model as the main theory. Other scholar’s I’ve taken
into consideration for this study are Rishoi who used CDA to analyse a film, and Lazar
(2008), who has been pioneering for Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA)
(2008: 90). With these theorists as my guidelines to perform a well-rounded analysis of
the screenplay – I believe the findings will show how girls are portrayed in Booksmart
(2019).

The choices in media production in film plays an important role to the end-
product. With key elements such as casting, costuming and set-design, film production
shifts from set building to world-building. For this particular analysis, I consider the
script to be the main part of the media production. The dialogue and the directions on
the screenplay are the basis of the film, and the grounds of this analysis. Hodkinson
(2017b), states that media production reflects the economic and organizational context
of which the media has been produced in (55).

In the following section I will introduce the literature used in this study.

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2.1 Previous Studies
Many studies focusing on coming-of-.age film analysis only focus on comparing
girlhood and boyhood representations, rather than the representation of girlhood alone.
Many coming-of-age film analyses also focus on films that centre around a male
character, which does not come as a surprise since one of the defining traits of the
coming-of-age genre is that the protagonist is a male1. Indicating that the lack of
female-led films being analysed is directly influenced by the massive difference in the
number of films that have females as the protagonist. Another component could be that
many female characters in Hollywood have been generally either poorly written or
lacking significant or realistic character development (Edwards, 2016).

Due to the lack of similar studies in this very specific field, I aimed to find
previous studies that consisted of similar components to mine: studies using CDA to
analyse film or TV media, studies using FCDA or film analysis on coming-of-age films.
As I incorporate audience reviews of the film, I also searched for studies that focus
solely on audience review analysis using CDA.

First, I wanted to focus on finding studies on coming-of-age films and found

Edwards’ study from 2016. Edwards’ study is close to mine in regard to using feminist
media theory as the main perspective and focusing on analysing female-led coming-of-
age films. Edwards’ aim is to connect the themes from media and feminism by
showcasing the grievance of the genre and how it fails to produce realistic and relatable
characters. Edwards specifically calls attention to the problems of the coming-of-age
genre, and how it fails to put forward a fair representation of people, beyond caricatures
and stereotypes, especially with its female characters (Edwards, 2016: 1). Edward’s
finding provided me much aid into what I should look into when it comes to the devices
pushing the plot forward: even with a female lead, are the actions driven by superficial
ideas such as a male crush or gaining popularity amongst her peers (2016: 1-2).

Second, I aimed to find a study that focuses on the same issue of gender
representation in film, and found a study from 2014 by Nairn, K. and Wyn, J. where
they analyse how girlhood and boyhood are portrayed differently in coming-of-age

1
See section 2.2.2

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films. Whereas growing up from girlhood is viewed as hopeful (Nairn et. al., 2014:
823), growing up from boyhood is viewed as a crisis (Nairn et. al., 2014: 824). The
study focuses on early 2000’s coming-of-age films, and how the plot differs with a male
protagonist versus a female protagonist. What was interesting about the results of this
study, were the drastic differences between the storylines of these films. Films with a
male protagonist would struggle with themes much bigger than themselves, the
protagonist does the growing by dealing with grief and loss and a disadvantage in life.
Whereas the films with female leads struggled with everyday problems, and having the
reward be superficial things, such as financial stability or independence (Nairn et.
al.,2014: 822).

One of the more recent studies regarding the coming-of-age genre and analysing
female representation, focuses on the current Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of
Sabrina and how Sabrina is portrayed throughout the series (Henesy, 2020). As well as
going into the discourse surrounding the series and the themes featured in it. Henesy
discusses how the character of Sabrina has changed throughout the years of remakes
from her original comic book form (2020: 3), and how the modernized experience of a
teenage girl growing into a woman has changed over the years (2020: 4). Henesy’s
study focuses on how witchcraft, feminism and feminine identities are portrayed in the
series with imagery and storylines (2020). Henesy’s results for the study are quite
intriguing, as the findings show that the identities of both a “witch” and a “feminist”
serve as a “reclamation of power” (2020: 4).

The most insightful study I found was by Shapiro in 2017 where she uses FCDA
to analyse four different screenplays. Shapiro’s study analyses four different
screenplays written by women with two research questions, similar to mine: how the
female screenwriters portray female protagonists and are these portrayals accurate to the
female experience. Shapiro’s hypothesis is that the portrayals will be accurate since the
characters are written by women. The approach Shapiro has to analyse the screenplays
is by analysing the interactions between characters and see how those affect the role and
behaviour of the female protagonists. This inspired me to take a similar approach to my
analysis, as Shapiro’s aim is so similar to mine.

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 Furthermore, in order to discuss the audience reviews, I wanted to find inspiration
from studies that focused only on film review analysis, as it is a massive part of the
discourse around films released to large audiences. Liu (2021) did a critical discourse
analysis regarding audience reviews about an animated film and studied the use of
language and the word choices the reviewers made in their reviews. Liu used the
appraisal theory by James Martin (2000) to analyze the data samples. I used this study
as a guideline on how to approach the data sets of audience reviews from a platform
such as IMDb. As Liu used both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes as the sources for the data
samples, it was helpful to see the process behind gathering the data and analyzing it
with different perspectives. As this study is within the field of English linguistics, I
found it very compelling as I aim to focus on the linguistic aspects of the text in detail.

With all these previous studies in mind, I intend to apply the methods, findings,
and results of these previous studies to my groundwork and analysis. From Shapiro’s
(2017) study, I was inspired to focus on the interactions and specifically dialogue from
the screenplay for this analysis. Based on the findings of Nairn et. al., I wanted to focus
on the outcome of the scenes under analysis: will the final outcome be of superficial
nature, or emotional? Edwards’ study expanded my knowledge on the coming-of-age
genre and its effects on influencing audiences by flawed representation of young girls.
Whereas Henesy’s (2020) study provided a great example of finding feminist themes in
medias portrayals. With the knowledge provided by these previous studies, I am now
able to locate the errors of this genre, know how to gather data samples from IMDb, and
look for feminist ideologies in film or TV.

2.2 Societal Background

In order to complete the analysis of the screenplay, I should start by the definitions of
girlhood and the coming-of-age genre, as well as introducing the history of female
representation in film.

2.2.1 Girlhood
Girlhood by definition is the same as childhood but only consists of the female
experience of growing up. Girlhood as defined by the Cambridge Academic Content
Dictionary: “the period when a person is a girl, and not yet a woman, or the state of

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being a girl”. As this is the same period of time that is a crucial element in the coming-
of-age genre, it should be discussed and explained why it is so important to this study.

Girlhood is an important time for girls to develop their self-image (Decker et. al.:
2010: 1), as during this time girls are more inclined to being influenced by outside
sources, such as teachers, parental figures and friends, and forming their opinions on the
world and themselves based on the influence and pressure from these outside sources.
The outside source of influence may not always be another person from the child’s life,
but another figure of authority, such as a famous person the child admires. This leads to
the child copying the actions of the source of the influence, which may lead to the child
developing ideologies and expectations for themselves on how they should be perceived
(Decker et. al.: 2010: 1).

The centrality of girlhood is shaped by age and gender along with a multitude of
other aspects of identity and how they work together to influence the experience of
growing up (Decker et. al.: 2010: 1). There are multiple factors that may influence the
girlhood experience, other than people, such as historical developments, events and
ideas (Decker et. al.: 2010: 1). How these things influence an individual girl differs case
by case, as there are unique factors, such as living environment and the individual’s
parental situation, that play into development from girlhood to womanhood.

With all this knowledge in mind, the target audience for Booksmart (2019) are
teenage girls, i.e., people still living out their girlhood, and thus easily influenced by
their surroundings and ideas presented to them.

2.2.2 Coming-of-age Genre

The coming-of-age genre, a sub-genre of the teen movie, commonly follows the same
formula: a misfit teenager struggling to come to terms with their own identity and
accepting that people are different. With an impactful monologue at the end of the film
to sum-up the protagonist’s journey and show just how much they have grown in the
film. The focus of the film is on the protagonist’s, which is commonly a male, growth
or transition from youth to adulthood, with usually a bigger decision to make that
provokes this growth. In this genre it is common to have the events of the story set in

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the past and preferring emotionally driven story with internal monologue or dialogue
over action (Casey, et. al. 2006: 271).

A lot of researchers have more complaints about the genre rather than praise.
Rishoi argues that many coming-of-age literature aimed for girls “glorify goodness,
duty, and romance” (2003: 2). Although this argument is made of literature specifically,
and this study is focused on a film screenplay, I believe this statement is useful for my
research question of how girls are portrayed in this specific genre of a film. As media
tends to give their own interpretation of the real world, this sort of glorified girlhood
may be damaging for a viewer that cannot relate to these sorts of values portrayed in the
characters they should be able to relate to.

Edwards (2016) criticizes female coming-of-age films and how they rely on sexist
clichés. Edwards argues that the genre is heavily affected by the patriarchal society, and
thus often diminishes its female character’s development and personalities (Edwards,
2016:1). One of the continues remarks Edwards notes is how female coming-of-age
films are often driven by the male love-interest, and not the female protagonist
(Edwards, 2016: 1), which evidently decreases the protagonist’s value to the story.

With all these aspects, and stereotypes, of the genre in mind, I will make my final
conclusions as to how girls are portrayed in Booksmart (2019), and if the film falls into
these derogatory stereotypes. Naturally, as the film is of the coming-of-age genre, it will
most likely have multiple of these stereotypes included and I can only hope they will
not function as a way to diminish the female characters as it could be expected.

2.2.3 Female representation in film

Naturally, as my main research question is to investigate the way women are being
represented in film, media representation is the most important theme I should focus on.
Hodkinson (2017a) argues that gender is something that you do, rather than something
you are (278-279).

Hodkinson (2017a) has a great statement about male versus female characters:
“men are active, independent and in control of their destiny, while the role of women is

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to satisfy the male gaze and, ultimately, be possessed” (280). I believe this statement
highlights the objectification of women, even in female-lead films.

Hodkinson (2017a) narrowed down the female representation to three main

categories: the home maker, the glamorous career woman and the sexy action hero
(284). Naturally, not all female characters should or are fit for only one of these
categories. The need for more relatable and diverse female characters with goals and
motives outside of aspirations such as the perfect wife or the glamourous career woman.
By having these more diverse and complex female characters, the representation of
women in media will become more truthful, and ultimately could even lead to lowered
expectations to girls and women in society. There has been progress in creating female
characters that are more realistic by exploring different ages, races and backgrounds and
having these characters have intra-female relationships (Hodkinson 2017a:285).

As the aim of this analysis is to find how young girls are portrayed as characters,
Steiner’s (2014) Feminist media theory should be taken into consideration as well for
the theoretical background. Steiner (2014) argues that feminist media theory addresses
power dynamics. Feminist media theory highlights the different dimensions power
structures show themselves beyond gender, such as “race, class, ability, nationhood, and
sexual orientation” (Steiner 2014: 359). One example Steiner gives of sexism and
discrimination in media is through “gendered jobs” (2014: 362-363). These jobs include
making female characters the teachers, nurses or other “care-takers”.
Getting good representation of life and people in films has been a struggle throughout
the years (Walsh 1984: 5). When the film industry first launched, almost all of the
actors were men. Then slowly in the 1940’s women got cast for supportive roles – never
speaking roles (Walsh 1984: 17), and from there female representation in film grew all
the way to what it has become today in the 2020’s.

Casey, et. al. argue that the need for representation strives from media being a
mediation: an interpretation of the real world (Casey, 2006: 265). They also point out
that the importance of representation is grounded on the fact that these representations
in media, whether they be inaccurate, positive or negative, may influence the media
consumers way of comprehension of a certain group (Casey, 2006: 265). This
emphasizes the importance of good and more importantly diverse representation. As

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many people who do not belong to these groups that are being portrayed in films, learn
from these unknown topics and people through these films, and thus inaccurate
representation can be very harmful.

Female representation in film has its roots tied with the feminist movement and
goes back to the early stages of film making. Women have been known to be only cast
in minor roles and almost always having a supportive role when it comes to driving the
plot forward, even if it is their own movie. Although female roles have come a long way
since the 1940’s, this still happens in modern films as well. Seemingly a woman’s
character can only be of value when it is in a nurturing or aiding position, whether it be
for the plot or the characters in the story (Callahan 2010: 19). This patriarchal portrayal
of women being secondary when it comes to being their own person and making their
own choices, has been taxing to the representation of realistic women in film. It creates
a draft between how women see themselves versus how the film industry views them.

With more female screenwriters, producers and directors, female representation

has become more diverse, and does not always follow the expectations brought on by
the male gaze (Callahan 2010: 213). However, as I mentioned before, this still has not
changed how women are often put in “supportive roles” and often have recurrently have
the motivation behind her actions be a man (Callahan 2010: 215). This sort of harmful
film representation can lead to certain audience members interpreting women as inferior
to men and starting to treat women in real life with the same ideology.

The current state of female representation in film has been a topic of discussion in
the media for a multitude of reasons. One of the biggest headlines in the last few years
has been regarding the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which have highlighted the
mistreatment, sexual abuse and harassment women have encountered, especially whilst
working in the film industry.

#MeToo, founded by Tarana Burke in 2006, is a movement specifically for

survivors of sexual violence to come forward about their experiences. The aim of the
movement is to “interrupt sexual violence whenever it happens” by “insisting upon
accountability on the part of the perpetrators”, and to provide sources for survivors of

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sexual violence (MeToomvmt.org). The movement gained global traction by going viral
on Twitter in 2017.

On the other hand, the #TimesUp movement was created in January of 2018 as a
response to #MeToo movement and the case of Harvey Weinstein. It was created by
women in the entertainment industry to be a non-profit organisation that raises money to
people who have experienced sexual harassment as well as providing legal aid by
TIMES UP Legal Defence Fund. As of 2020, the organization has raised 24 million
dollars in donations. The message #TimesUp movement deliver is to bring safety to the
workplaces of women by bringing equity to the workplace. (TimesUpNow.org)

“Enough to sexual favors in exchange for work. Enough to being paid less than
we deserve. Enough to feeling unsafe and disempowered where we work.”
TimesUpNow.org: our story

A number of actresses have come forth with their own stories of mistreatment
within the industry. The case that seemed to gain all the media attention regarding the
movement was the allegations against director Harvey Weinstein. With more than a
dozen women in the industry coming forward about being sexually harassed and/or
assaulted by Weinstein, the #MeToo seemed to gain the support of nearly everyone. The
movement was spreading all over social media, with women across all ages coming
forward with their stories or simply sharing the hashtag MeToo on their feed.

This current uprise of demands from actresses for better working conditions and
better opportunities for female-filled spaces is one of the reasons I wanted to focus my
study on the film industry and the portrayals of teenage girls, as they tend to be
overlooked, taken advantage of, and blatantly mistreated.

2.3 Steiner’s Feminist Media Theory (Intersectionality removed)

Female representation in the media, or as Steiner (2014) defines feminist media theory
as “highlights the development of media established by feminists for feminist
audiences, which often embody feminist values.” (Steiner, 2014: 359). These values
being: “respect, caring, reciprocity, self-determination, and interconnection” as well as
later added honesty and sensitivity (Foss et. al., 1999: 74). This led me to defining the

15
perspective of my study through the modern stages of the feminist movement and the
ideologies, concepts and methods of the feminist media theory. Steiner (2014)
emphasizes, that female representation is invaluable in modern film making, as women
and girls should feel included in media spaces just like men and boys do (275). Not only
should they be represented in these spaces, but the portrayals should be truthful and
include the female-gaze instead of the male-gaze, which has become the norm in media
when it comes to portraying women and even girls (Steiner, 2014: 369).

Important topics featured in feminist media theory that are compatible with my
analysis are audiences, social constructions and social control. Steiner discusses these
concepts through gender representation in media. Social constructs, such as gendered
jobs are heavily featured in TV and film (Steiner, 2014: 365), examples of these jobs are
nurse, teacher, housewife and waitress. Women are most often cast for these “maternal”
or “nurturing” jobs – whereas it is viewed comical to have a male character cast as a
house husband or diminishing if a male character has a job such as a waiter or nurse.
This is an aftereffect of patriarchal value in media. Female characters are devalued by
their job position, and only portrayed in a way that idealizes motherhood and
selflessness, whereas their male counterparts are often given job positions such as CEO,
surgeon or principal, always superior to the women, more career-orientated and possibly
considered “selfish” if women had these positions over maternal ones. The way to move
forward from these stereotypes is by having women running the studios and production
in order to have “more diverse, creative, and ‘positive’ representations” (Steiner, 2014:
363).

When it comes to audiences, feminist media theorists have developed “theories,

concepts, vocabulary and methods” (Steiner, 2014: 367) in order to analyse and study
women’s genres, such as soap operas and romance novels. The aim was to find
reasoning as to why women enjoyed these specific genres more so than men, and how
women “intentionally fitted these forms in their lives” (Steiner, 2014: 367). This led to
theorists believing that “patriarchal ideology causes sexist content, and thus sexist
behaviour” (Steiner, 2014: 367). This argument has been disproven later on. The reason
scholars disagree with this statement, is that there is no way of proving how the
audience reacts to the content they view and there is no way for a scholar to analyse
each individual’s thought pattern and how the content may have affected it.

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 The impact of internet has been tremendous when it comes to young girls,
audiences and popular culture behaviour. With blogs, fan pages and fanfiction
becoming everyday life, girls are more criticized by their interests (Steiner, 2014: 371).
Feminism and media are interrelated (Steiner, 2014: 370) and grow together as new
forms of media arise and become popular amongst users who feel the need to be
truthfully represented, whether it be on film, television or the internet.

Femininity and masculinity are both social constructs that are performed in order
to present a certain gender, whether it be male or female. There are differing degrees of
creativity when it comes to performing gender, with the aim of provoking others to do
the same (Steiner, 2014: 365). Gender identity is the end-product of performed gender,
rather than the expected cause of performed gender (Steiner, 2014:365). This has led to
theorists, such as Judith Butler (1990), arguing that the subject of “a woman” should be
overlooked, as no person performs their gender the same way or have the same interests
or characteristics (Steiner, 2014: 365). This has ultimately led to studies focusing on
groups of women in order to find common ground for what is “a woman” and how she
could be portrayed in media. This sort of thinking suggests that men and women “live
different lives” (Steiner, 2014: 366) and thus bring their different views and experiences
to their workplace. For example, journalists having different views on news stories
based on their gender (Steiner, 2014: 366). There have been major changes in
femininity and masculinity throughout the years, and yet the media still represents them
as opposites, regardless of the fact that they are not, but it has rather become a
symbiotic relationship where each can gain from the other (Steiner, 2014: 366).

With all these aspects of Feminist Media Theory in mind, I aim to answer my
research questions and analyse the data with the perspective of Steiner’s theory. What I
find the most important for this specific study is locating the performed gender in the
screenplay: how does performed gender occur in the characters’ actions and dialogue?
The other essential aspect I find crucial for this study are the methods feminist media
theorists came upon whilst studying the genres specifically aimed for women and how
they were crafted for this specific target audience.

17
2.4 Gender Discourse: Gendered Language
Gender is “a system of dispositions and a system of hierarchical power.” (Melin, 2008:
209) As previously stated, gender is a socially learnt, and performed, concept. An
extensive part of how patriarchal society is built is based on this hierarchical
discrimination: one gender being superior and the other inferior. Even though there are
movements, such as the feminist movement, that try to bring forth diversity and
equality, it is implausible to see such changes when it comes to such deeply rooted
problems in society. As the aim of this study is to find out how girls are portrayed in the
screenplay of Booksmart (2019), I need to be able to find the components in the text that
perform the characters gender. This led me to Gendered Language.

Examining gendered language is going to be my main form of analysing the

screenplay of Booksmart (2019) as in the form of text and dialogue it is important to
take a closer look at the details in word choices, speech patterns and phrasing. Simpson
et al. argue that gender bias in language is prominent in: ‘sex specification, gratuitous
modifiers, lexical gaps, under-lexicalization, semantic derogation, asymmetrically
gendered language items and connotations of language items’ (Simpson et.al., 2019:
48).

In order to study the language used in the screenplay to analyse how feminine
speech is portrayed, I need to define what feminine language is. Simpson et al. define it
as ‘lexical disparity, empty adjectives, hedges, identifiers and overly polite forms’
(Simpson et.al., 2019: 50). Whereas masculine language is characterized as
hierarchically organized, impersonal topics, centres on the exchange of information as
well as foregrounds speech genres of joking and trading insults. Which entails a less
personal interaction in comparison to women’s language use.

There are differences in gendered language based on cultural context (Bucholtz,

2008: 48). Bucholtz argues that the most significant aspects that alter cultural speech
include speech acts, events and genres (Bucholtz, 2008: 48). As the events of the story
in Booksmart (2019) take place in North America, the cultural context of gendered
language is not limited due to the lack of women participating in conversation, as some
cultures might (2008: 48). Naturally, the cultural group (21st century high schoolers in
the USA) also come with their own speech acts, such as slang and internet lingo, that

18
differ from other small cultural groups in the same space (for example, Middle aged
North American). This may lead to miscommunication between the two groups (2008:
49). As the ethnography of communication in the context of Booksmart (2019) and the
selected scenes for the analysis only contain people from the same cultural group, the
only miscommunication may come to my own interpretation of the text, as I am not a
part of the said cultural group.

Bucholtz (2008) also points out that there are challenges when it comes to
analysing gendered language when it is in text format, rather than oral, such as pacing
and the extent of hedging. But due to the fact that the screenplay is meant to be an oral
conversation, rather than a written one, I believe the analysis will be successful even
with its limitations.

These are the main aspects I’ll be looking at whilst analysing the text: locating
topics: are they personal or impersonal, is the exchange based on values of sharing
information or emotion? The other important signifier for female gendered speech is the
speech patterns: are there a lot of empty filler words, is there hedging and does the
language pattern change when female characters are talking to men whereas when they
talk to women, such as using a more polite form?

(Festinger’s comparison theory removed.)

2.5 Critical Discourse Analysis as a Theoretical Perspective

CDA in its core is critically analyzing sociological issues from a linguistic perspective.
CDA is a study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice. It
highlights issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, exploitation as well as
predicaments within politics, education, and media. This is done by studying the
relationships, culture, environment, historical aspects, and purpose that directly
influence the meaning of language. CDA uncovers the affect ideology has on language
and communication, as well as researching the causes of context to language.

19
 As ‘language both shapes and is shaped by society’ (Simpson et. al., 2019: 116),
CDA provides a detailed look into how language behaves in a social construction. CDA
analyses the connections within the text through the context of the discourse. The goal
of CDA is to translate the correlations between ideology, language, and power. It is not
only important to analyse the text on what is written, but also to be able to see what is
missing. The influence of societal context directly effects the language choices in a text.
These are more often visible in the choices the author/orator of the text/speech has done
when it comes to including information in the text, and more importantly, what is left
out. From a philosophical perspective, CDA has influences from Neo-Marxism,
specifically the criticism of ideology and social analysis (Fairclough, 1995).

3. Methodology
In this section I will introduce the main methods used to perform this study: Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA) and an extension of CDA, Feminist Critical Discourse
Analysis (FCDA).

3.1 CDA & Fairclough’s three-dimensional model

For my analysis, I will be using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the method to
inspect the data and applying Fairclough’s three-dimensional model to interpret and
study the data in its full context, as explained below.

First, I want to explain why I have chosen CDA as the method for this study. My
main reasoning being how my research question was formed, and how I intend on
finding the evidence to support my answer: I will analyse a text, in this case the
screenplay of Booksmart (2019), and the main objective is to see if the representation of
a socially discriminated against group is accurate and/or good in terms of the standards
of the viewers. CDA is perfect for this study, as it critically analyses sociological issues
from a linguistic perspective. It is a study of discourse that views language as a form of
social practice, and highlights issues of power asymmetries, manipulation, exploitation
as well as predicaments within politics, education and media. As there is a power
dynamic when it comes to female representation in film, I consider this method to be
the best in order to find the correct evidence to support my arguments.

20
 As ‘language both shapes and is shaped by society’ (Simpson et. al., 2019:116),
CDA provides a detailed look into how language behaves in a social construction and
analyses the connections within the text through the context of the discourse. The goal
of CDA is to translate the correlations between ideology, language and power (Simpson
et. al., 2019: 116).

As my main motive for doing this study was to see if the representation of teenage girls,
I believe using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model will be in favour of this study.
Fairclough’s three-dimensional model consists of the following elements of analysis:
text, discourse practice and social practice.

First, there is text: a detailed analysis of the discourse in the text – either written or
spoken. This section of the three-dimensional model is done by carefully analysing and
describing the text by looking into the linguistic choices within the text, these linguistic
choices range from: vocabulary (wording and metaphors), grammar and cohesion.
(Simpson et. al 2019: 119).

Second is the analysis of discourse practise, which is analysing the text with its
context. This entails a focus in investigating the production, distribution and
consumption of the text. The aim is to answer the following questions: who wrote the
text? Why was it written and for whom was it written for? (Simpson et. al. 2019: 120).
Discourse practice’s focus is to study the relationship of the author/orator and
reader/hearer, and what power dynamics may exist there.

Lastly, we have the socio-cultural practice analysis, which is a deeper analysis of

the intertextual and interdiscursive components. This demands to look further than just
the context of the text at hand and consider the socio-cultural effects to the text
(Simpson et. al. 2019: 120). This section of the analysis is what eventually led me to
choosing Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for this study, as it requires the
researcher to take a step back from the data and view it as a whole in the real world, and
how it contributes to the issue at hand.

21
Figure 2 - Fairclough's three dimensional

Figure 3 – Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for this study

As my main perspective in this study is Steiner’s (2014) Feminist media theory, and
CDA focuses on the linguistic choices done in the text, discourse and sociocultural
practice, I would also like to introduce Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA),
which adds onto the text analysis by focusing on how women are represented.

3.2 FCDA
As the main concern in this study is to investigate how girls are portrayed in Booksmart
(2019), I will also include the definition of FCDA. Explained by Lazar, FCDA is
research carried out within the paradigm of CDA (Lazar, 2008: 92) with a feminist lens
of analysing the text from a linguistic perspective. The main distinction between CDA
and FCDA is the appointed social injustice i.e., oppression of women in patriarchal
society. This leads to the focus of the analysis being the text analysis: what sorts of
vocabulary, metaphors and phrases have been chosen to discuss and/or represent
women, and how patriarchy has affected these choices. as patriarchy systematically
privileges men over women in society (Lazar, 2008: 90). FCDA analyses how this
hierarchy is visible in text in relation to the social practice of Fairclough’s three-
dimensional model. As Lazar (2008) describes FCDA, it “is a form of analytical

22
activism” (90) with the intent of exposing these inequalities in a patriarchal society. In
order to fully conduct the analysis of the screenplay, I will use this definition of FCDA
in order to direct my analysis to a feminist perspective, using Steiner’s (2014)
arguments to support my findings to be of value to the Feminist Media Theory.

4. Data
In this section I will provide a detailed description of the data collection and research
process (4.1), as well as explain the data samples used in this study in section 4.2.

4.1 Data Collection and Research Process

When I started drafting my research, my original intent was to compare an early 2000’s
coming-of-age film, Mean Girls (2004) with a modern take on the genre, Booskmart
(2019), in order to investigate how the genre has changed in the 15 years. But I was
advised to either go with one film or select a film and a remake to make the results of
the study more coherent. This led me to studying Little Women (1994) and Little
Women (2019). But, when I was gathering data of the scripts, I came upon issues when
it came to the 1994 version, as it was not available online. This deterioration of data
selection was causing a huge delay in moving forward with the study. Once I disclosed
my issues of gathering the necessary data with my thesis supervisor, I was advised to
focus on Little Women (2019) alone. After working on analysing Little Women (2019)
for months, I decided to go back to my original plan and analyse a more modern take on
the coming-of-age genre, as I felt that Little Women (2019) was not the depiction of
girls that I wanted to study (modern teenagers) but I would have had to take into
consideration that Little Women is a film adaptation of a book written in the 1800’s,
and the events of the story are based on that century as well. This would not give me the
results I wanted for my research question, as I wanted to focus on modern
representations of girls on film. So, I returned to my original idea to study a modern
film, set in modern times, Booskmart (2019).

I tried to find as accurate previous studies to help guide me in this analysis.

Focusing on keywords such as “CDA”, “coming-of-age genre”, “female representation
on film” and “female protagonists”. After scouring through multiple data bases (Google
Scholar, Mendeley, MAU Library, ProQuest etc.) I came to the conclusion that there are

23
not many studies focusing specifically on female-led coming-of-age films. Thus, I
expanded my search for female protagonists on film, regardless of genre. This is to
investigate what kind of findings other researchers have made about female protagonist
representation on film. Naturally, there were many more results.

Beyond previous studies regarding media representation. I wanted to find recent

studies regarding audience reviews for films. This was to help me formulate my
research better and to find a way to incorporate audience reviews into my analysis – as
they play a great role in the film discourse.

To complete the analyse in its full societal context, I prompted to look into the
audience reviews of the film from IMDb. The choice of using IMDb rather than Rotten
Tomatoes for example, is that IMDb is a free online platform for anyone to access and
is solely based on audience reviews. I wanted to specifically leave out critics’ reviews,
as I believe it would not be beneficial for this particular study to include them, but to
focus on the casual viewers experience, and how they feel the film represents its
characters – do the audience members feel connected to them and would they say the
film represents the teenage experience well enough to relate to the actions of the film? I
made a Microsoft excel spread sheet of all the written audience reviews on IMDb that
had 1-, 8-, 9- or 10-stars, as I was very limited on time and those 4 had the most reviews
of all categories.

In order to find the screenplay samples, I went on scriptslug.com to find the script
for Booksmart (2019). I chose to use Script Slug as it is a free screenplay sharing
platform so that my study would not be limited due to financial issues or other struggles
to find the data. Script Slug operates under the fair use doctrine of the United States,
with the intent of educating and inspiring screenwriters (Script Slug). Next, I started
selecting the scenes I would focus my analysis on. My thesis supervisor assured me that
I could focus my analysis on important scenes alone instead of the full body of work as
it would need a lot more time to conduct a detailed analysis of the entire body of work. I
selected the four scenes in particular, as they fit Freytag’s pyramid of plot stages, and
the scenes play an important role in moving the plot forward. The final scene that was
selected is the graduation speech, which I found important for this study, as it is one of

24
the most recognized tropes in coming-of-age films. The selected scenes can be found in
the appendices.

My approach to analysing the text in particular comes from my previous academic

background, which is a bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics. This is also the reason
I chose to use CDA as my method for this thesis, as I have done multiple case studies
using CDA and thus am familiar with the methodological and theoretical approach. I
wanted to apply socio-linguistic theory to this study – as it focuses on finding power
conflicts in society and media, for example power imbalances when it comes to race,
class or gender. From a socio-linguistic perspective, it is not only important to analyse
the text on what is written, but also to be able to see what is missing and then adapt the
information to a larger context.

4.2 Data Samples

In this section I will introduce the data used in the analysis. First, a general description
of the selected scenes used for the text analysis, and then an overlook of audience
reviews from The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb). Data for the full selected scenes
can be found in the Appendices.

4.2.1 Breakdown of Selected Scenes

I selected the 2019 film Booksmart for this analysis is because it portrays a current-day
depiction of teenage girls as it is set in a modern-day high school setting. What makes it
relevant is the fact that it is recent and is written by women, it should provide a realistic
insight what teenage girls are like in the 21 st century in the eyes of film media. Another
important aspect into selecting this particular film is the genre. There are not many
coming-of-age films where the main protagonist is female, which evidently leaves too
much room for false representation of girls and young women in this film genre. This
can have toxic consequences, as these films are targeted towards teens and young
adolescents, that should be able to relate to the characters on-screen. Another addition
that led to me choosing Booskmart for this analysis is how it was received by critics and
audiences: the film was praised due to its “refreshingly accurate portrayal of the
characters” (Bitch Media. 2021). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a 96%

25
critics review and a 70% audience approval score. On IMDb it is currently rated at
7.2/10 stars among audience ratings.

The film is about two best friends, Molly and Amy, on their last night of high
school. Both girls have been focused on their studies and resumes, and never partied or
socialised with others during high school, thus leading to the events that are about to
unfold in the film: the last high school party on the night of graduation. With heavy
themes of friendship and self-realization, the film goes through the feelings of pain and
joy of growing up and letting go of childhood whilst ending on a hopeful note for a
more independent, bright future for each of the protagonists.

In order to select the three scenes that I will analyse deeper, I picked three criteria
that should be featured in each scene in order to make the selection as coherent as
possible:

1. The main protagonists must be featured

2. A conversation between multiple characters
3. A moment that drives the plot forward and/or urges change in the characters
actions or relationships

With these three criteria I narrowed down the scenes to analyse into the following three
scenes that follow the Freytag’s pyramid of plot stages (Freytag et. al., 1863:115):

Scene 1: The Inciting Incident: Main characters Amy and Molly decide to go to a
party on their last night of High School.
Scene 2: The Rising Action: Amy and Molly are discussing their next move after
accidentally doing drugs.
Scene 3: The Climax: Malala at the party: Amy wants to leave but Molly doesn’t
which leads to a fight in the middle of the party. They fight about their relationship and
how it’s not equal.

In addition to these scenes, I also wanted to analyse the final monologue, as it is a

staple to the coming-of-age genre. In Booskmart, it is Molly’s graduation speech, this
scene serves as resolution in Freytag’s pyramid of plot stages.

26
Figure 4: Freytag’s Pyramid and the selected scenes

4.2.1.1 Scene 1: The Inciting Incident: The picnic table.2

The inciting incident for Booksmart (2019) is the decision Molly and Amy make in
scene 1 at the picnic table. They debate back and forth on whether or not they spent
their high school years “right” as they find out that others who did not dedicate
themselves to academics to the level Amy and Molly did also manage to succeed in
getting into respectable colleges. This scene also serves as the spark of the conflict that
is to ensue between the two protagonists. The scene sets up the relationship between the
two: Molly as the leader and decision maker, and Amy as the trusted companion, whose
main purpose for Molly seems to be emotional support and approval, rather than
unconditional friendship.

4.2.1.2 Scene 2: The Rising Action: George’s House3

The second scene under analysis is right after the girls sober up from taking drugs at the
nights second party location. This scene is a true showcase of the duo’s dynamic: the
selfish and the selfless. Amy has proven to herself that she can let loose and party,
going to two parties and even did drugs – by accident. Amy states “we can say we went
out” as an indicator that she did not want to go out for herself, but rather for the
approval of others.

2
Full scene transcript in Appendix I
3
Full scene transcript in Appendix II

27
Molly on the other hand is not giving up on her fixation to go to Nick’s party. As it is
revealed in this scene that her drive to go to the parties at all was to pursue Nick in a
romantic way, making all the decisions of the film directly correlated to a male, rather
than either of the two female protagonists. What makes her crush on Nick stand out as
opposite to the stereotypical coming-of-age crush, is that Molly seems to be in denial
with it. Saying she can suppress her feelings and that her “body likes him” but her “mind
knows it’s stupid”. Amy can sympathies with these feelings and makes it clear to Molly
that she is deserving of anything she wants, even if it is a “jock” from high school. In
this scene Amy truly shows how supportive of a friend she is and gets just as, or even
more, motivated to get to the party where Nick is.

4.2.1.3 Scene 3: The Climax: Malala 4

The climax of the film takes place at the final party Molly and Amy go to. Amy stands
up to herself and asks Molly to leave with her, trying to protect Molly from heart break
that she had to endure just moments ago. Unlike what Amy expected Molly to act, she
does the opposite and refuses to leave the party with Amy. Amy then calls for “Malala”,
their sacred code for ‘do what I say – no questions asked’, but Molly still refuses, even
though she herself used “Malala” to get Amy to continue the night with her. This is
Amy’s breaking point, and she starts yelling at Molly on how mistreated and inferior
she has felt while being friends with Molly. Molly then takes this as an insult and insists
that Amy would not do anything with her life if it were not for Molly making decisions
and plans for her. Amy then reveals that she is planning on going to Africa for a gap
year and not to university Molly had planned them to go to together.

During the heated argument between the two protagonists which reveals their
differences and how they need to grow apart from each other, unlike they have been
making decisions together the entire film so far. Amy emphasizes how she seems to be
the only one making sacrifices in their relationship, and always does as Molly says.
From the audience’s perspective, Molly comes across as manipulative, controlling and
selfish, as she is unaware of Amy’s true intentions: saving Molly from heartbreak. The
fight is left without a conclusion, which leaves Molly to think more deeply of her
actions, plans and herself as a person without her best friend.

4
Full scene transcript in Appendix III

28
 4.2.1.4 Scene 4: The Falling action: Graduation Speech 5
The graduation speech is the final scene under analysis for this study. As the final
monologue, it wraps the story up and summarizes the theme and learning lessons of the
film to the audience. It is one of the most common tropes of coming-of-age films, yet in
Booksmart (2019), the final monologue is shorter than expected. Molly gives the speech
to her classmates, whilst only looking at Amy, insinuating that she is in fact only
speaking to Amy. She emphasizes the importance of not caring about what other people
think, and life is not all about perfection, and that in the end, people can take different
approaches to life and still end up in the same place.

4.2.2 Audience Ratings and Reviews

In order to complete the three-dimensional analysis, I collected audience reviews from
IMDb. I decided to use IMDb as it is a popular site for rating and reviewing films and
TV series, where anyone can leave a review under a username. The reviews are easily
accessed without needing to log onto the website and are freely available for anyone
visiting the website, making it of fair use. Booskmart’s (2019) audience ratings on
IMDb are currently at 7.2/10 starts, with 107 331 votes. Most of the ratings are between
6 and 9 stars, with 7 having the most votes.

Audience Ratings on IMDb

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000

Audience Ratings on IMDb

Table 1 – Audience Ratings by vote / number of stars on IMDb. October 2021.

5
Full scene transcript in Appendix IV

29
For a better look on how the audience reviewers felt about the movie, I want to take a
closer look at the written reviews as they reveal a lot more than just the number of stars
the reviewer has rated the movie as. In total there are currently 776 written reviews of
Booksmart (2019) on IMDb.

Number of stars Number of

given by IMDb users reviews/rating level
1 star 81
2 stars 33
3 stars 38
4 stars 31
5 stars 57
6 stars 65
7 stars 75
8 stars 133
9 stars 95
10 stars 143
Total: 776

Table 2 – Table of IMDb ratings as of October 2021.

As it can be seen from the table of reviews, based on rating by stars only (not written
analysis of the film), the IMDb users find the film mostly a success, as most of the
reviews left are above 5 stars, with the exception of 80 reviews of 1 star, and the most
reviews with 10 stars.

As for the written reviews, I wanted to focus on the most prominent ones: 10-
star-reviews (143 reviews), 9-star-reviews (95), 8-star-reviews (133) and 1-star-reviews
(80). Due to a time limitation, I cannot analyse each audience review of the film, and
thus will try to gather enough data for a general overview of the audience feedback to
the film. All of the reviews of 1-, 8-, 9- and 10-stars can be found in an additional
attachment of a spreadsheet.

30
 The 10-star-reviews focus on how funny and refreshing the film is, with a few
exceptions of discussing how “empowering” the film was to watch. Many of the 10-
star-reviews focus on the relatability of the characters:

“There were so many scenes that had me stitches. This movie is absolutely
hilarious, and perhaps that comes partly from how relatable it is. Olivia Wilde
obviously understands the high school experience.”
10-star-review by user jsy-54887, 28.5.2019

The 9-star-reviews seem to be written by regular film watchers, as many of the

reviews focus on how the film performed in the 2019 film environment, Olivia Wilde’s
directorial debut, and how the film stands out as a coming-of-age film.

”I usually don't relate to high school films anymore because I feel my generation
has passed it. But this film manages to show you what current high school kids go
through while wrapped in the common themes of adolescence.”
9-star-review by user deandsouza15892, 29.5.2019

Much like the 9-star-reviews, the 8-star-reviews focus a lot on the fact that the
film is Olivia Wilde’s directing debut. Saying Booksmart is a “funny debut” and an
“impressive debut from first-time director Olivia Wilde”. Many of the 8-star-reviews
also point out how they see that the film is “not for everyone” or how it can divide
opinions. In this category, the reviews also praised how it was a refreshing take on the
coming-of-age genre:

“Overall, this is a fresh coming-of-age story that feels charming and (very!)
funny. Yes, the film includes some standard clichés that one would expect from a
coming-of-age film, but that makes sense. It does not reinvent the genre, it's just a
cool new take on it.”
8-star-review from user joelmulder96, 21.4.2020.

On the contrary, the 1-star-reviews mostly focus on how the jokes are not funny,
the film is “cringe” to watch , it forces “feminism gay crap” onto its viewers and the it is
full of clichés. Something that stood out from the 1-star-reviews, is that there was

31
multiple that pointed out how they watched the film for 10-15 minutes and thought that
it was “disgusting” – referring to the film having a lesbian character as one of the main
protagonists.

”I made it 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 26 seconds before I realized this movie is going
nowhere. I was hoping for a coming of age averagely funny flick... the authentic
laughs are minimal. Most of them fall flat and feel forced.”
1-star-review by user Brad_G35, 11.9.2019

Throughout all of these reviews, there is a constant theme of comparing Booksmart

(2019) to a 2007 coming-of-age film, Superbad, and how Booksmart seems to be “the
girl version of Superbad”. This specific opinion is equally received as a positive
characteristic, or a negative one, based on the number of stars given by the reviewer.

To summarize, the film definitely received mixed reviews from the audience. The
prominent reaction of “you either hate it or you love it” was often pointed out by the
reviewers themselves as well, regardless of the reviewer’s own experience whether the
movie was good or bad. While transcribing the reviews, I noticed that many of the 1-
star-reviews were months or years after the films first release, whereas 8-stars and
above where mainly from the first months since the film’s release, which may have
perhaps led to prejudice before watching the film. Many of the 1-star-reviews were
shocked to see that the film did not match their expectations – as many stated they
wanted to see the films due to it having been rated so well by critics and audiences
alike.

5. Ethics
For this study, ethics weren’t an issue as the main data only features fictional characters,
so privacy and anonymity won’t be an issue. This also stands for the audience reviews,
as the users can leave their reviews under a username, and random IMDb website
visitors could not draw conclusions to the reviewer’s true identity based on the level of
information I share in this study nor based on the level of information IMDb has
available if someone was to go to a reviewer’s profile. The only information that is
shared – at least to visitors without a user on IMDb – are the reviews the reviewer has

32
written and how long they have been an IMDb member. The only ethical issue I believe
should be noted is fair use, as the script was found on a website that specifically states “.
Script Slug also states on their “Legal” section that they respect the wishes of creators
and take down scripts that the author’s do not want published on their website. But as I
credit the screenwriters, from original to the current version that is Booskmart (2019),
and I use the content in the form of a research study, I believe I am acting in the rights
of Fair Use. Of course, as with any art, copyright issues should be considered and credit
should be given to both the original creator, Alcott, and the screenwriter of the remake,
Gerwig. Other ethical issues that may occur is with CDA as a method. As it does
require knowledge of the sociocultural environment, and the focus of CDA is to find
and identify inequalities within the text under analysis, there could possibly be an issue
with sensitive information, especially when discussing the feminist movement.

6. Analysis
In this section I will conduct a thorough analysis of the selected scenes. First, I want to
give my overall thoughts of the scenes based on the theories I introduced in previous
sections, then move on to text, discourse and socio-cultural practice analysis. As is
evident in the selected scenes, the story is very dialogue driven, as is to be expected
from this genre of film (Casey, 2006). Much of the plot goes forward on the basis of
what the result of the dialogue is: in scenes 1, 2 and 3, the dialogues are directly
affecting the actions of the characters and thus moving the plot forward. The only scene
that does not follow this pattern is the fourth one, as it is in the “resolution” part of the
plot, and thus does not serve the same purpose as the other three scenes of moving the
plot forward. Instead, the purpose of the scene is to showcase how the protagonists have
grown throughout the events of the story and summarize the theme of the film: self-
realization and -acceptance as well as friendship.

6.1 Text Analysis of Booksmart (2019)

Based on the theories of gendered language (Simpson et. al., 2009) and Steiner’s
Feminist Media Theory (2014), I have determined the key elements of female
representation in the screenplay, and thus will analyse the portrayal of girls by
specifically looking into the following elements in Booksmart (2019): gendered
language, performed gender and feminist values.

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 6.1.1 Gendered Language
The biggest language tropes that could be easily detected in the word choices are the
female characters cussing, as it does not fit the “polite form” of speech, that is usually
noted in female speech. This I believe to be due to the character being a part of the
cultural group: North American teenagers, and how in that group it has become
acceptable or even a necessity in order to fit into the similarities of others by adding
profanities when speaking to their peers. I came to this conclusion due to the fact that all
of the characters that fit into this cultural group, regardless of gender, use these
profanities in the speech, with no ill intent but rather as a form of expressing a certain
feeling.

Another element I noticed whilst reading the screenplay is that in conversations

between Molly and Amy, Amy only says a few words, whereas Molly talks in longer
sentences with full arguments to back up her thoughts. It is a common part about
feminine gendered speech for women to “talk a lot without saying anything”, which
roots from the fear of being interrupted (Simpson et. al 2010: 117). This form of
gendered speech presents itself differently in each girl: where one speaks her mind and
“word vomits” and the other only says the necessary things, such as answering
questions. This is a sign of a more masculine gendered speech pattern: only focusing on
the informative aspects of what is being said. The only time in these selected scenes
where Amy speaks in a more feminine way is in Scene 2 when she is trying to
encourage Molly. This also creates a power dynamic between the two protagonists, as
one takes a more active role in speaking and expressing herself through words than the
other.

Surprisingly, there are not many filler words in the scenes, leading to a much
clearer communication between the two characters. The only time that filler words are
used are when the girls are trying to boost each other’s confidence:

Amy: “…You are the smartest, strongest, coolest, most stunningly gorgeous creature
this high school and this earth has ever seen and Nick would be lucky to be a footnote in
your story. And we are going to his party.” (Scene 2)

34
Yet, interestingly, Amy’s character has a lot more hedges in her speech than Molly,
perhaps to compensate for the otherwise masculine speech tropes: “that’s not – we
broke rules” (Amy, Scene 1), and: “We’re okay. We’re okay!” (Amy, Scene 2). Other
displays of gendered language are all the identifiers in both of the protagonists’ lines,
the use of “dude” and “bitch” to refer to one another in a fond manner, whereas during
scene 3 they refer to each other as “bully”, “mean”, “a bad friend”, “a pushover” etc.

6.1.2 Performed Gender

As both of the main characters are female, performed gender cannot be assessed by
comparing the two. As Steiner (2014), states, the genders are usually presented as
opposites in media. But, as the previous section pointed out, Amy’s character is written
in a much more masculine way – in comparison with Molly’s character. This entails that
Amy’s character is performing more masculine and Molly more feminine. Other
differences between the two character’s speech patterns are the choices of words to
address each other. Amy opts for “dude”, an English slang word that originally stood
for a male individual, whereas Molly calls opts for “bitch”, English word for female
dog, and later used as a derogatory term for a woman – nowadays it is used as an
informal form of address. What makes the writing distinguish the girls as feminine
characters, is specifically during scene 3 when they have a fight. As Casey (2006) and
Edwards (2016) determined in their studies, fights surrounding women/girls are mainly
done verbally, whereas fights breaking out between men would nearly always turn
physical.

Both protagonists seem to take on a caring role in their relationship: Molly a more
dominant one, and Amy a more emotional one. Molly acts as a source of authority for
the duo, and Amy tries to nurture Molly’s emotional needs by agreeing to her ideas;
regardless of if she wanted to do the things in the first place. While Molly acts in a more
assertive way, which can be linked to more masculine behaviour, her feminine speech
patterns compensate for it, much like Amy’s nurturing personality compensates for her
more masculine speech patterns – almost leading up to somewhat of a gender-neutral
undertone for both of the characters.

35
 6.1.3 Feminist Values
There are obvious feminist elements spread throughout the script. From Molly and Amy
being portrayed as successful, career-driven women, to Molly’s graduation speech.
Although., the speech Molly had prepared for the graduation ceremony, read aloud by
Jared in the beginning of the scene, is filled with “stereotypical” feminist tropes: calling
out the “straight white man” and emphasizing womanhood with words of aggression
such as “powerful” and taking “the fist of femininity”. But, due to the events of the
story, Molly finds the speech unnecessary and decides to speak from her heart. She
starts off by admitting she was wrong to believe that her way of life was the only correct
one, and that there is “a lot more to learn”, fitting for a classic coming-of-age final
monologue.

Now I will continue the analysis while looking into the feminist values described
by Foss et. al., (1999) and seeing if they appear in the text.

Respect is visible in the final scene of the graduation speech, as mutual respect is
formed between the two main characters, as well as Molly finally respecting her
classmates, instead of viewing herself as superior. Other times respect is shown towards
someone is with Amy and Molly, specifically from Amy to Molly. In scenes 1 and 2, it
is shown that Amy respects Molly, as she values her opinions and approves of her
actions.

Caring is used as a form of manipulation on Molly’s side (Scene 1) in order to get

Amy to agreeing with Molly. One of the bigger components Molly manipulates Amy, is
using her crush against her, masking it as support and caring of Amy’s happiness while
simultaneously downplaying her own part in the fun.

Molly: “You’ve been out for two years and you’ve never kissed a girl. I want you to
experience this.
(intense)
And what will I be doing during that time? I’m going to experience a seminal fun
anecdote, and we’re gonna change our stories. Forever.”

36
Whereas its portrayed genuinely on Amy’s behalf, as in Scene 3, she tries to get Molly
to leave the party with her in order to save Molly from heart break. In Scene 1, Amy
also shows caring towards Molly in the first line:

Amy: “If you don’t say something in the next ten minutes / I’m gonna take you to the
hospital / I don’t wanna say I’m getting concerned / But to be honest I’m getting
concerned—"

This is a continuous part of Amy’s character throughout the scenes. In scene 2, instead
of judging Molly for having a crush on “a jock”, she insists on helping Molly to get to
the party and try her luck with love:

Amy: “If you ever say anything like that about yourself again I will fucking lay you out.
You are the smartest, strongest, coolest, most stunningly gorgeous creature this high
school and this earth has ever seen and Nick would be lucky to be a footnote in your
story. And we are going to his party.”

Reciprocity is the premises of the film. The girls’ relationship is based on constant
co-operation and mutual success. This ultimately leads to their relationship growing into
a codependent one, which seems to frustrate Amy more than Molly. Although in the end
they both seem to understand that they can still gain mutual success while living
independently.

Whereas Self-determination is the end-result of the film. As the two protagonists’

have become codependent of each other and learn with the films events that
independence does not mean the end of their friendship, but that they can grow as
people and be friends even with “different schedules” (Molly, Scene 3).

Interconnection is a theme that shakes the two character’s relationship. As they

are portrayed to be in a codependent relationship, with a need to grow apart, their
connection with each other gets tested as a result of the films event (Scene 3, ”Malala”).

Honesty is portrayed throughout the scenes, mostly in scenes 2, 3 and 4, when the
two protagonists are finally to themselves as each other. In scene 1 it is also clear that

37
the protagonists do not tend to hide their feelings regarding their perception of others or
themselves:

Molly: “So we messed up! We didn’t have to choose! They did both and we’re the only
assholes who did one!”

Sensitivity is shown most in scenes 2 and 3. In scene 3, as the fight breaks out
between the two characters, both react and respond by emotion and frustration. In scene
2, Molly confesses that she has feelings for Nick, and Amy is understanding of it and
wants to help her have her chance with him. This sensitivity and being able to be
emotionally vulnerable are important aspects of femininity and feminist values as it
makes a person be nurturing, caring, interconnected, collaborative and respectful
towards others (Foss et. al., 1999: 4).

6.2 Discourse Analysis of Booksmart (2019)

In this section I will discuss why this film was made and for whom. I want to discuss the
aim and effects of the full context of the text i.e., the film Booksmart, including the
production, distribution and consumption of the film. As mention in section 4.1, I will
answer the following questions: who wrote the text? Why was it written? For whom was
it written for? (Simpson et. al. 2019: 120).

In order to elaborate more on the fact on ‘who wrote the text?’ I should establish
the details of the film production of Booksmart (2019) as it is an immense part of who
has created the content, and how it can be distributed to audiences. Booskmart (2019) is
an Annapurna Pictures and Gloria Sanchez Productions collaboration, directed by
Olivia Wilde. Annapurna is an American independent media production company
founded in 2011 (Annapurna Pictures). Gloria Sanchez Productions is an American
based film production company founded in 2014 that focuses on producing “female-
centric” films (Riley, 2016).

Who wrote it? The screenplay is the result of four female screenwriters: Emily
Halpern and Sarah Haskins as the original writers, followed by a rendition by Susanna
Fogel and finally Katie Silberman.

38
 Why was it written? In an interview with Indiewire, it is revealed that the script
for Booksmart was originally written by Halpern and Haskins in 2009, then was
rewritten by Fogel in 2014. It was only in 2018 that Wilde sat down with Silberman to
discuss the possibility of their version of the script. The story changed throughout the
years with different screenwriters giving it their own twist, but the core of the film
always stayed the same: “two very smart best friends who try to navigate the end of
their high school experience” (Erbland, 2019). What made Silberman want to work on
the script and bring it to production, was that she was inspired to want to pursue a career
in filmmaking, and writing in particular, due to her love of the coming-of-age film
Clueless (1995). Whereas Wilde was inspired by making a film that reflects 2019 and
portrays a relationship between “two brilliant best friends”. The goal the two women
had for Booskmart (2019) was to make a timeless coming-of-age film that honours the
uniqueness of modern teenagers, by showing what it was like being a teenager during
the time of the making of the film (Erbland, 2019). Silberman also shared with the
Indiewire that she aims to make films “about smart women who feel like the friends I
have in real life” (Erbland, 2019), meaning she intends to make accurate and realistic
interpretations and portrayals of women and girls in her screenplays.

For whom is it written for? As usual for coming-of-age films, the target audience
are teenagers and young adolescents. Silberman and Wilde set out to make a film for
generations to come, but from the interview with the Indiewire, I would argue that
Silberman aims to make films that inspire young girls as much as she was inspired by
Clueless (1995) when she was a teenager.

I find the audience reception to be necessary for this part of the analysis, as it is a
key element in studying the relationship of the creator of the content under analysis, and
the receivers of the content. The audience ratings and reviews reveal that the film was
received well by the majority, yet it did divide a lot of the reviewers’ opinions. Many
good reviews (8-10 stars) were titled “you either love it or hate it” or “I can see how it
divides opinions” (IMDb). Where others praised the film for being so bold in discussing
female sexuality, others found it “disgusting” even. As it is quite new for films and TV
to include LGBTQ+ characters in the main cast, it does not come as a surprise that
people would be closeminded about it. Molly’s character received a lot of negative

39
comments as well, although the reviews seemed to be aimed towards the actress, and
not the character on screen. Many 1-star-reviews called her “unlikeable” and “the fat
one”. One comment that kept occurring in the reviews – regardless of the rating – was
that the theme of the film was not meaningful enough.

6.3 Socio-Cultural Analysis of Booksmart (2019)

As Fairclough’s three-dimensional model not only examines text analysis, but
interpretation and socio-cultural explanations for the phenomena under analysis, I
should include some discussion regarding how this screenplay fits into the socio-
cultural space of modern teenagers being portrayed in film. In this section I will analyse
the cause and effects of the screenplay and how the audience reception connects to it in
the films socio-cultural space of Hollywood in 2019.

First, I want to question where Booksmart falls under in socio-cultural aspect. As I

have mentioned in previous sections, the cultural group that the protagonists are a part
of the North American Teenagers in High School. This specific age and geographically
located group comes with their own social and cultural norms. This leads to the
characters having specific language tropes and word choices. As the text analysis
demonstrated, one of the standout tropes is the continuous use of profanities in a non-
malicious way but instead the characters use them as filler words to emphasise their
words.

Next, I want to analyse the socio-cultural position of the film in the real world. In
2019, with the height of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, the demand for
female-filled spaces in the film industry is at its height. Nowadays female representation
on film has grown to be a norm in the industry, and people have had to demand more
representation of other minorities, such as sexual minorities. Booksmart (2019) has
great inclusion when it comes to representing members of the LGBTQI+ by having one
of the protagonists be a lesbian teenager. Amy’s character does not seem to be limited
to her sexuality, but rather it is an extension of her. She is portrayed as academically
successful and career driven, and most importantly a regular teenage girl. In the film her
sexuality is mainly used in order to manipulate her to going along with Molly’s plans,
as Molly does in Scene 1. What has poor representation in the film are racial minorities.

40
This comes evident in the audience reviews, especially the ones that gave 7 or more
stars. Only George is person of colour. All the other characters featured are middle class
white children, which is a very limited variety of representation in the grand scale of
things. USA specifically, where the story takes place, is one of the most diverse
countries, yet the people portrayed in the film are somehow all white including one
Asian. The only character that is black is Amy and Molly’s favourite teacher, Ms. Fine,
and she only has a minor part in the film.

Finally, I want to discuss the impact the film had on audiences based on the
representation it provides. The representation Booksmart (2019) provides for young
girls is vast. There’s a variety in personalities and aspirations, but the lack of
representation on young girls of colour is an eyesore, as the film portrays itself as a
progressive interpretation of modern high schoolers but leaves a group of people
completely unrepresented. Obviously, one film cannot change the film industries lack of
ability to realistically portray real life and real people, but the praise the film received
from critics and audiences alike (Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb) regarding its honest
portrayals of teenage girls and the high school experience in the U.S., although many of
the reviews also noted that the film seems to be promoting teenage drinking and drug-
use. Some said that the film is inaccurate and toxic in the way it depicts northern-
American high school party-culture, it is safe to say this film may leave certain people
disappointed and feeling misled as many of the 1-star-reviews commented on (IMDb).

7. Conclusion
Based on the text analysis, it can be said that the girls are portrayed as somewhat
“gender-neutral” characters, as their performed gender does not quite reveal itself in
these specific scenes. Naturally, the visuals play an important role in performed gender
as well – and as this study only focuses on the text it cannot be further determined here.
Regardless, the screenplay does use feminist values in its advantage, as all the key
values stated by Foss et. al. (1999) are put to use in most of the selected scenes.
Gendered language in the screenplay plays a major role in depicting Amy and Molly as
individuals. Their speech patterns and behaviours are different and easily
distinguishable, but it is quite stereotypical to have the lesbian character have more of a
masculine undertone in her speech patterns. The quietness and excessive hedging could

41
be a response to feminine speech patterns as well (Simpson et. al., 2019), as Amy is the
more submissive one in their dynamic, which may lead to a lack of confidence when
given a turn to speak. While Molly has a clearly more dominant part in discussions,
almost making them out to be debates and leaving little to no room for the other
converser to add their thoughts and opinions to the conversation. In conclusion, the two
protagonists are portrayed as determined, emotionally driven young women with a
colossal need to be more independent of each other.

According to some of the audience reviews on IMDb, Booksmart (2019) is a

surprisingly refreshing depiction of teenage girls, as it covers topics from growing pains
and struggling to fit in with others to anxieties about growing up and figuring out who
you are as an individual. This I believe to be the biproduct of Silberman’s aim to write
realistic portrayals of women and girls, with the goal of inspiring her audience members
much like she was in her girlhood. The film also discusses topics that have been
considered taboo in the female-led coming-of-age films such as sexuality and
masturbation even though it does it in a humoristic way as is to be expected of the
genre. Which seems to be the biggest contributor for all the split reviews on IMDb, as
many lower ratings emphasized the disgust the reviewers felt about the film being too
risqué and direct with female sexuality.

The characters have a good variety and aren’t only limited to stereotypes,
although this does not mean they are all that profound. Many of the audience praises
(and complaints) are regarding the actresses playing the two protagonists (IMDb).
When it comes to diverse representation, Molly being plus-sized and Amy being a
lesbian provides a refreshing non-traditional approach to female heroines in modern
films, which shows the improvement in writing realistic female characters who don’t
have to fit into a specific mould that only fits the requirements of the male-gaze. One of
the most occurred comments about the two protagonists was that Molly is
“insufferable”, and that both of their needs and goals are too superficial for them to be
relatable for any viewer that is not a “teenage feminist” (IMDb). The level of deepness
the characters have does not come as a surprise for me, as the previous studies pointed
out that the genre usually have their female characters’ aspirations be much more
surface level than the male characters’ (Edwards 2016, Casey 2006). This might even be
one of the reasons there are not many studies on female-led coming-of-age films, as

42
they are usually deemed as “bad movies”, which explains many of the positively
surprised 8- or 9-star-reviews on IMDb.

With all these positive aspects of the film, there are a handful of negative areas to
cover. The plot is arguably what makes this film stand out when it comes to female-led
coming-of-age films. But it does fall into the stereotypes mentioned in section 2.2.2. As
Edwards (2016) had argued, the plot is drastically moving forward due to a possible
male love-interest. The girls decide to go to the first party because of Nick, and in scene
2 Molly admits she has a crush on him which leads to the girls deciding to go to the
third party, with the intent of finding Nick. Even the fight in Scene 3 is partially affected
by Molly’s infatuation of Nick, as she refuses to leave the party because she would have
to leave the opportunity of attaining Nick’s affection. The same treatment doesn’t
follow Amy though. Even through Amy has a crush on a girl, Ryan, and tries to pursue
this relationship at the party, it is clearly not as important to the story as Molly’s crush
on Nick. It is only used as a plot devise when Molly weaponizes Amy’s crush to
manipulate her to go to the parties in the first place, saying she’s going for Amy and
Amy’s chance of romance. This inequality of the two protagonists love lives could be
more expanded with the theories of intersectionality and discrimination, as Amy falls
under the category of sexual minorities and Molly does not.

Additionally, as Steiner (2014) pointed out, the jobs featured in the film were
heavily gendered. I did not end up selecting any scenes featuring adult characters, but I
wanted to point out this connection to Steiner’s theory. Amy and Molly’s teacher is a
woman, whereas their principal is a man.

Other things that I find problematic in the film are generally the same things other
researchers found when analysing this genre of film. Much like Edwards and Nairn et.
al., I was met with the same stereotypes they had called out. The end result of the film is
less superficial than the beginning, but the beginning is set in exactly the way Edwards
(2016) had determined: plot moving forward due to a male love interest, popularity
amongst peers and petty fights, where all the participants are girls (Edwards, 2016: 1-2).

43
 7.1 Limitations
The first limitation of my study is the narrow data sample, as using the full screenplay
would give more broad results. Another limitation is that I am not a part of the cultural
group of the characters, which can cause language barriers and lack of cultural context.
These two aspects can ultimately lead to misunderstanding of the text, and thus faulty
findings.

Another limitation I found to be most difficult was time. With more time I could
perfect the thesis: add more sample data, expand the audience review data sample, and
do more research in media representation and how it affects society. This lack of time
also means that I could not reach a level of expertise in the study area, that would give
better results to the analysis.

7.2 Further Studies and Final Remarks

In order to expand this study, I’d first add the theory of intersectionality into the
analysis and compare the two protagonists: how are the portrayed differently from each
other, even when they are set out to be equals? I would also like to expand more on the
audience reception of the film, and perhaps do a more detailed study focusing on
audience reviews only. Maybe even compare different rating websites (Rotten
Tomatoes and IMDb) and see if the reviews are consistent regardless of platform or is
there a shift in userbase and thus the reviews as well.

Another idea I have for developing this study even further is to make a
comparative study with both a female and a male screenwriter’s screenplays of coming-
of-age films that both have a female lead and see if there are any major differences in
the representation of girlhood. I believe this could be interesting, as Callahan (2010) and
Steiner (2014) had stated that female representation has significantly improved due to
women being in the writer’s room and in positions, such as producers or directors,
where they can change the portrayal into something more realistic and relatable.

I will be looking forward to seeing what the film industry will provide in the field
of female-led coming-of-age films in the future, with hopefully improved storylines,
realistic worldbuilding and character development. I believe that in this point of time,

44
the film producers are underestimating their target audience, as the youth of today are
smarter than ever before, with access to information in just the tip of their fingers. I am
optimistic that in the future there will be more researchers across various academic
backgrounds interested in this phenomenon, who will continue to study further on how
the effects of media may alter young audiences’ opinions on themselves, and how the
results may affect society as a whole.

45
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Riley, J. (2016, May 27). Gloria Sanchez productions offers female-centric filmmaking. Variety.
https://variety.com/2016/film/features/gloria-sanchez-productions-offers-female-centric-filmmaking-
1201782376/.

Robehmed, N. (2015, October 13). Jennifer Lawrence speaks out on making less than MALE CO-
STARS. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/10/13/jennifer-lawrence-speaks-
out-on-making-less-than-male-co-stars/?sh=3f7fccec223b.

Walsh, Andrea S. (1984). Women's film and female experience, 1940-1950. New York : Praeger

Washington, L. (2019, December 29). The importance of representation in film and media. Medium.
https://medium.com/@Laurenwash/the-importance-of-representation-in-film-and-media-2d006149cac9.

48
APPENDIX I

EXT. PICNIC TABLE - THE VALLEY - DUSK

Molly leans against a well-worn PICNIC TABLE, in shock. Amy’s set out a CAKE and
a MEMORY BOX and is playing an AUTO-HARP, making up a song to try to cheer
Molly up.

AMY
If you don’t say something in the next ten minutes / I’m gonna take you to the hospital /
I don’t wanna say I’m getting concerned / But to be honest I’m getting concerned--

MOLLY
Triple A?! Fucking Triple A?! This is FUCKED.

Amy slides away the auto-harp.

AMY
Ok, that’s obviously not helping...

MOLLY
We chose. We didn’t party because we wanted to focus on school and get into good
colleges.

AMY
And it worked.

MOLLY
But the irresponsible people who partied also got into good colleges! They did both!

AMY
So?

MOLLY

49
So we messed up! We didn’t have to choose! They did both and we’re the only assholes
who did one!

AMY
We’re not assholes! Let’s just have some cake and celebrate the end--

MOLLY
This is not a time to celebrate.
(turning back to Amy)
We have to go to a party tonight.

AMY
What?

MOLLY
Let’s go to Nick’s party.

AMY
Are you kidding? No way.

MOLLY
We only have one night left to have studied and partied in high school. Otherwise we’ll
always be the girls who missed out. We never made out with strangers or snuck out and
had to sneak home without waking up our parents or broke any rules!

AMY
We broke rules! We have fake IDs.

MOLLY
Fake college IDs so we could get into their 24-hour library!

AMY
That counts. Plus, what’s so great about breaking rules? Name one person whose life
was better cause they broke rules.

50
MOLLY
Picasso.

AMY
That’s not-- he broke art rules.
Name someone who broke a real rule—

MOLLY
Rosa Parks.

AMY
(a beat)
Name anoth--

MOLLY
Susan B. Anthony.

AMY
Goddamnit.

MOLLY
I’m serious, Amy. Everyone thinks we’re these robots. They think all we care about is
taking a million APs and getting into Yale and editing Law Review at Georgetown and
clerking for a Federal Judge between Junior and Senior Year before eventually being
the youngest justice ever nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States!
(then, awkwardly)
In my case. You get my point. No one knows we can be fun too.

AMY
We do. We know.

MOLLY
(intense)

51
They need to know.

AMY
Who’s “they?”

MOLLY
We’re not one-dimensional. We’re smart and fun. We have to do this.

AMY
This is crazy. We graduate tomorrow. What if we get in trouble?

MOLLY
You know we’re too smart for that.
Plus Ryan wanted you to come. She’s gonna be there and you’re finally gonna make a
move.

AMY
(flustered)
What? That-- She-- no.

Molly sits next to Amy.

MOLLY
You’ve been out for two years and you’ve never kissed a girl. I want you to experience
this.
(intense)
And what will I be doing during that time? I’m going to experience a seminal fun
anecdote, and we’re gonna change our stories. Forever.

Amy’s cracking.
AMY
We were gonna watch that Ken Burns thing...

Molly knows she’s got her. She jumps up, pumped--

52
MOLLY
The Dust Bowl can wait, bitch! What took them four years, we’re gonna do in one
night.

She’s so pumped that she grabs the cake and TOSSES IT off the hill.

END SCENE

APPENDIX II

EXT. GEORGE’S HOUSE - A LITTLE LATER

Molly and Amy lay on the lawn, finally coming down. Amy puts one hand under her
bra and another down her pants.

AMY
We’re okay. We’re okay! And we did it. We went to two parties, we accidentally did
drugs-- we can say we went out. Let’s go home.

Molly sits up.

MOLLY
What? No. We have to stick to the plan. The plan is to go to Nick’s.

AMY
Dude, nothing has gone according to plan tonight.

MOLLY
Which is why we have to STICK to the plan. We’ll call another Lyft--

AMY
Why are you being so pushy?

53
MOLLY
Honestly, pushy is a compliment.
You know who else is pushy? Diane Sawyer. My girl Joan of Arc. Queen Noor of
Jordan--

AMY
(defensive)
I know where Queen Noor is from!

MOLLY
Once we get to Nick’s, all of this will be worth it--

AMY
Forget about Nick’s! No one will even tell us where it is. Why are you so obsessed with
his party?

GIGI (O.S.)
Because she loves him.

Molly and Amy JUMP-- Gigi’s standing out on the SECOND FLOOR
BALCONY, looking over them.

MOLLY
Oh my God, Gigi, STOP DOING THAT.

AMY
What did you say?

GIGI
Molly loves Nick.

Molly scoffs but her face goes BRIGHT red as she stammers--

54
MOLLY
Can you please stop repeating that sentence? Because it’s not true.

AMY
Molly hates Nick.

MOLLY
Thank you.

GIGI
She projects disgust to cover up a deep desire. How many times a day does she bring
him up?

AMY
She brings him up to complain--

GIGI
That’s still talking about him.
Look, the auras are very clear. I don’t write them. I just read them.

MOLLY
No. No. Nope. You just drugged us and tried to throw us off a boat, so nothing you say
is of any value to us.

Gigi flips Molly off.

MOLLY (CONT’D)
Okay, you can stop flipping me off, because YOU should flip off. So...shut the fuck up.

Alan bursts outside the front door, looking for Gigi--

ALAN
Madame Mayor! What are you doing out here?
(sotto)

55
George locked himself in the closet.

He spins on his toes and floats back inside with Gigi as Amy turns to Molly,
who’s very flustered. Amy realizes--

AMY
Dude.

MOLLY
No.

AMY
Dude...?

Molly finally turns to her.

MOLLY
No! I don’t like him. Yes, maybe he’s classically, traditionally handsome, and weirdly
charming, so maybe my innate biology registers him as an ideal mate. And yes, maybe I
occasionally fantasize about him sweeping me off my feet.

MOLLY (CONT'D)
And some weaker people might call that a tiny crush but I can fight against it, I can
ignore it because we all have weird interests and all that matters is that we shove them
down and never think of them again.

Amy just looks at her friend. She gives her a small smile.

AMY
You don’t have to shut anything down.

MOLLY
Yes I do. Because I can’t like him.

56
Maybe my body likes him but my mind knows that’s stupid, because he’s a jock who
only cares about being cool and having fun and he doesn’t even look at girls unless they
look like Triple A and he doesn’t even want people like me at his parties because I’m a
butterpersonality.

Amy slaps Molly across the face.

AMY
How dare you say that about my best friend.

MOLLY
WHAT the FUCK--

AMY
If you ever say anything like that about yourself again I will fucking lay you out. You
are the smartest, strongest, coolest, most stunningly gorgeous creature this high school
and this earth has ever seen and Nick would be lucky to be a footnote in your story. And
we are going to his party.

Molly’s amazed--
MOLLY
Are you serious?

AMY
I’m dead serious. If Nick’s what you want, that’s what you deserve.

She stands.

MOLLY
How? How are we gonna find out where the party is?

AMY
By doing what we do best.
(dramatically)

57
Motherfucking homework.

A kickass HIP HOP SONG starts as we CUT TO...

END SCENE

APPENDIX III

INT. LIVING ROOM - NICK'S AUNT'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Amy pushes her way through the crowd, trying not to cry, looking for Molly. She needs
her friend, but she also needs to save Molly from feeling what she’s feeling.
She finally spots her waiting patiently at the pong table. Molly sees her and brightens,
grabbing her—

MOLLY
Oh my God THERE YOU ARE! How’s it going? Did you find Ryan? Did you go in the
pool?

AMY
Molly--

MOLLY
Things are going really well over here. Like, really well. I’m being mean to him and it’s
working and we talked about Harry Potter and he knows I’m a Slytherin and he seems
to like it--

AMY
Molly, I think we should go home.

MOLLY
What? No, just dry off!

58
AMY
I just think we need to leave right now. Seriously. Let’s go this way.

MOLLY
Are you nuts? No way. Nick’s fully flirting with me. I think this is gonna happen.

AMY
Molly, please. I’m asking you. Let’s just go.

MOLLY
Just go find Ryan--

A beat.

AMY
Malala.

MOLLY
Amy, no.

AMY
Are you kidding? I’ve done whatever you wanted all night. Now I’m calling Malala!
Come with me!

MOLLY
I’m not leaving just because you’re doing the thing you always do!

Amy’s already a raw nerve. Now she’s pissed.

AMY
What is that supposed to mean?

MOLLY

59
Just...you always talk a big game but then you give up just when things get
uncomfortable. Like, you jumped in the pool and now you’re sad that you’re wet?

AMY
That’s bullshit!

MOLLY
If I didn’t drag you to do things--

AMY
You don’t drag me, you force me to do whatever you want to do!

Now Molly’s startled by Amy’s tone. They’re both drunk and emotional enough to not
realize how loud they’re getting. The whole room starts to notice.

MOLLY
What does that even mean?

AMY
You decide what we do and when we do it and that we always have to do it together--

MOLLY
I have to decide what we do because you never decide anything! I have to do all the
heavy lifting in this friendship. You never take charge.

AMY
I take charge!

MOLLY
You never take charge! I always have to push you. Without me you wouldn’t do
anything.

AMY
I’m going to go to Africa without you!

60
MOLLY
I encouraged your summer abroad!

AMY
I’m not going for the summer! I’m going for the whole year!

A beat. Molly is floored.

MOLLY
Wait, what?

AMY
I’m taking a gap year. I deferred Columbia until next fall.

MOLLY
When did you decide that?

AMY
When I applied.

MOLLY
In January? You’ve been lying to me since January?

AMY
Yeah, because I knew you would’ve tried to bully me into staying!

MOLLY
But we’ll be on completely different schedules.

MOLLY (CONT'D)
We’re not gonna graduate together, we’re not gonna go on a post- college trip, we’re
not gonna move to DC together, our whole plan—

61
AMY
That was your plan! That was never my plan.It’s always your plan.

MOLLY
I can’t believe you. You think going to Africa makes you tough but you weren’t even
brave enough to tell me? You’re a fucking coward!

AMY
You’re selfish! And mean!

MOLLY
You’re a bad friend!

AMY
You’re a fucking bad friend! I called Malala! That was a sacred code!

MOLLY
I got the Metro North commuter pass to visit you in New York every weekend!

AMY
Nobody asked you to do that! Just like nobody asked you to come to this fucking party!
Nobody invited you! Nobody wanted you here!

Molly sputters, hurt and furious--

MOLLY
FUCK YOU!

Amy flinches. And suddenly they realize -- the whole room is watching. Half of them
are filming the fight on their phones. Amy starts to say something, but then just glares
and marches past Molly out of the room.
END SCENE

62
APPENDIX IV

EXT. GRADUATION FIELD - DAY

Jared sweats as he keeps giving the speech--

JARED
I am a woman. I am a powerful woman. And I’m ready to take the fist of my femininity
to that status quo.
(can barely do it)
Straight white man, your...time...is...u--

BAM! On the other side of the field the car bursts through a gate and drives right
onto the field. Everyone turns, startled, as they swerve to drive right up to the stands.

JARED (CONT’D)
Oh, my God, my car is fucked up.

Amy and Molly stumble out, sprinting to the ceremony--

MOLLY
(running, out of breath)
I’m here! We’re here!

The crowd cheers as they run down the aisle. Amy starts to go to her seat but
Molly tries to keep her up on stage—

MOLLY (CONT’D)
No, stay—

AMY
I’ll go to my seat—

MOLLY

63
 (holding Amy’s arm up)
LOOK WHO MADE IT!

The crowd goes NUTS.

RYAN
YES AMY!!

MORE SENIORS
We want Amy!/AMY!/WE LOVE YOU AMY!

Amy blushes, amazed. Jared hands Molly the speech, eager to get off the stage,
but Molly stops him, leans in and kisses him! In front of everyone!

The crowd LAUGHS and WHISTLES. Jared floats off, dazed. Molly turns back
to the crowd and grips the podium. Despite all of her planning, she’s suddenly frozen
with nerves.

MOLLY
Okay, uh...it seems like Jared did a pretty good job.

She just stands there, taking in her classmates.

MOLLY (CONT’D)
You know, I was so...scared of you guys, I felt like I had to prove I was better than you.
But really, I don’t know any more than you. All I know is that we all have a lot more to
learn.

Molly locks eyes with Amy. Amy smiles at her, emotional, proud. All of a sudden
Molly’s about to cry.

MOLLY (CONT’D)
Because this part’s over. And that’s so sad.

64
 In the audience, Amy nods, tears in her eyes.

MOLLY (CONT’D)
But it was great, wasn’t it? Things are never going to be the same, but it was perfect.
(back to the audience)
And I may not have before, but I see you. And you’re great. Don’t let college fuck it up.
(then)
Congratulations, guys.

Amy gives a loud WOOP and the whole crowd CHEERS. Molly takes Amy’s
hand as George and Alan walk onstage.

GEORGE
Okay! That went over, but I will not be cutting down my allotted time.
(calling back)
Gigi, hit the track!
END SCENE

65