Booksmart: parents' guide
Best for ages 16 and up. Rated R for strong sexual content and language throughout, drug use and drinking - all involving teens.
A smart, funny coming-of-age comedy for older teens about two high-achieving best friends who try to cram four years of partying into the night before graduation. The heart is a warm friendship, and one lead is gay with no fuss made about it, but the content is strong: near-constant f-words, nonstop frank sex talk, a sexual encounter between two girls with undressing and touching, and teens drinking, smoking pot and eating drug-laced strawberries that set off an animated trip in which the friends become naked Barbie-style dolls. The teen sex, drugs and language are why we suggest 16.
What's in it
Violence
MildMild: the friends accidentally pepper-spray themselves, try to intimidate a delivery driver who turns out to be a wanted killer and shows them a gun, and a boy bangs his head on a locker.
Language
StrongNear-constant strong language: one count found more than 70 f-words and nearly 20 s-words, plus motherf----r, a--hole, bitch, crude anatomical terms and middle-finger gestures. The n-word is heard in a song, and God's and Jesus' names are used as exclamations.
Sex and nudity
StrongTwo teen girls kiss, strip to bras and touch intimately on a bathroom floor; one's pants and underwear come off, though only bras and thighs are seen. A drug trip turns the friends into naked Barbie-style dolls. Porn audio plays; a teacher's hookup with a 20-year-old senior is implied.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
StrongTeens drink beer and liquor, play beer pong and smoke pot at parties, and the leads unknowingly eat drug-laced strawberries that trigger a hallucination. One lead admits to a pot brownie, supposed cocaine turns out to be vitamins, and police break up a party.
Scary or intense scenes
MildLittle that's scary: a creepy delivery driver turns out to be a wanted killer, and a girl jumps off a boat into dark water. A bitter fight between the two friends may hit some teens hard.
Worth talking about
Molly assumed the kids who partied didn't care about their futures. Talk about the assumptions we make about classmates and how often they turn out to be wrong.
On our lists
Similar picks around 16+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, movieguide.org, the MPA. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.