Booksmart – new films coming to Portsmouth cinemas

Booksmart (15)

Actress Olivia Wilde identifies herself as a high achiever with a riotous feature film directorial debut, strutting confidently down the same corridors of beautifully articulated teen angst as Clueless and Mean Girls.

The heartfelt hilarity is delivered with genuine warmth and grin-inducing sincerity by the dream team double-act of Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein.

They have us rooting for their sassy, self-aware misfits from the moment they prepare for another day at school with impromptu body-popping on the side of the road.

These girls are sugar and spice and all things naughty but nice.

Potentially thorny issues of fat-shaming, sexual experimentation and peer pressure are cheerfully navigated or sidestepped to encourage characters to wear individuality and naivete on their sleeves, next to their hearts.

Amy (Dever) and best friend Molly (Feldstein) have studiously forsaken fornication and partying in order to achieve their academic dreams.

Textbooks have been the girls' steadfast bedtime companions and as graduation looms, Amy is destined for Columbia while Molly has been accepted into Yale.

The gal pals despair at the tomfoolery of classmates so they are gob-smacked to learn that lazy peers have also secured places at coveted Ivy League institutions.

It's a bitter pill to swallow: Amy and Molly have needlessly missed out on extra-curricular lessons in drunken bonding.

The friends hatch a hare-brained scheme to gatecrash a party thrown by cool kid Nick (Mason Gooding) in the hope that Amy can finally approach her crush: skateboarding tomboy Ryan (Victoria Ruesga).

This haphazard odyssey puts Amy and Molly on a collision course with narcotics, crime, an explosion of bodily fluids and a shocking discovery about their high school principal (Jason Sudeikis).

Booksmart is an unapologetically forthright and tender valentine to the glorious final hours of carefree abandon before adulthood comes a-knocking.

It's going to take something very special to usurp Wilde's boisterous romp from remaining top of the class of comedies in 2019.

Out now. 

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters (U)

A parasitic race that has plundered the planet's natural resources, polluted water and air, and slaughtered millions in the name of liberty, religion, greed and technological advancement.

That's the message to take home from Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, a spectacular but corny sequel that justifies the title creature's interventions as the only way to restore a delicate balance between selfish humans and resplendent Mother Nature.

Performances struggle to be heard above the din of Bear McCreary's orchestral score and a symphony of roars.

Dougherty's picture wreaks destruction on a grand scale but only manages to build one or two truly compelling human relationships.

Out now. 

Ma (15)

Teenager Maggie is new in town. 

She quickly makes friends and outside a local convenience store, she approaches local woman Sue Ann to buy alcohol for her underage classmates.

Instead, Sue Ann invites Maggie and pals Haley, Darrell and Chaz to her large house to party in the basement, which is unused.

The youngsters seize the opportunity and are delighted by Sue Ann's hospitality. The owner has three rules: no-one is allowed upstairs in the main house, at least one of the group must stay sober and everyone should address her as Ma.

When the agreement is broken, Sue Ann's kindness turns to toxic obsession.

Released May 31.