The Kissing Booth

In L.A., Elle Evans (Joey King) and Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney) have been best dancing friends since the day they were born at the same time to two best friends. Elle discovers that she has developed a crush on Lee's older hunky brother Noel (Jacob Elordi). The main problem is that Elle and Lee have set up these rules and dating the other's family is definitely one of them.

I hope for nothing but good things for these adorable actors. This may not be one of those good things although it's not irredeemable. King is an adorable child actress trying to grow up on screen. Elordi is in full hunk mode. Courtney has limited character work in his role. Everybody is good. Even the mean girls are not complete ditches. This seems to be a simple cheery teen rom-com. There are a lot of referencing 80's and 90's especially the music. They're passing notes in class for heaven's sake. In the modern era, a kissing booth is impossible for a high school fundraiser. I don't think it would work for any fundraiser. This stuff hasn't been done since Revenge of the Nerds. Leaving that aside, their kiss makes no sense. He wouldn't be waiting around at the kissing booth. The plot is so simplistic that the movie refused to develop a love triangle. It threatens to try early on and quickly draws back. All of that is fine until it tries to be overly dramatic. There is no real drama to be had but the movie insists on injecting some big emotional conflicts. It could have done some smaller emotional arcs to maintain its poignancy. He's going to college and that's enough for emotional drama. As for Lee, the movie deliberately gives him a girlfriend before the reveal so that there is no chance for romance. The first half works somewhat as a light teen rom-com geared for girls. The second half struggles to make it dramatic when it doesn't need it.

Sexist and victim blaming. Not appropriate in this 'me too' culture.

The acting was good, for the type of movie it was. The chemistry was great. I liked all of the main characters, but the writers WTF? They blamed the love interest for what the main female character was responsible for? WTF? Did I miss why everyone hated the love interest as well? I mean, sure, maybe they didn't think he was right for her, I get that, but they all seemed to actively DISLIKE him. EVERYONE in the mc's life hated him. I didn't get that at all. I actually came to write I think my third? review on this site after 10 years because I'm so confused.

Is this explained in the book or something? Did he do something other than kiss/sleep with a lot of girls?

It's as if the Hallmark channel tried to make an R rated movie while keeping it PG.

Okay, so the movie is cheesy, the dialogue is cheesy, the entire plot is incredibly cliche. The entire football team going "OOH" when she sassed Noah, I mean really?? I could get past all that if the relationship between the two main characters was believable. I know that they're dating in real life and it really shocks me because me and my friends that watched this all thought there was barely any chemistry. I feel like they should've actually developed the relationship more instead of showing cheesy montages. It felt like they dated for five seconds before they were in love. Also, I'd just like to say that the notion that Noah could get into Harvard is downwright absured and just plain laughable. Harvard is extremely selective and don't just look at your grades, they look at everything. In the movie he is constantly getting into fights and he skips school. There is no freaking way he could have ever gotten into Harvard. I just couldn't get past how ridiculous that was, I know it was in the book, but it's just plain stupid. This movie could've been cute but the acting was ridiculous and the plot was entirely unbelievable.