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In the opening montage of the first movie, Elle chirpily narrates scenes of her getting sneezed on mid-first kiss, intercut with shots of her dying mother in hospital. There are certainly points which are unintentionally hilarious. Even still, there is a certain magnetic quality to the series’ unique brand of awful an inescapable black void at its core, masked by a blindingly bright colour palette. If it weren’t for my friend group’s quest to sit through every trashy Netflix rom-com under the sun, I might not have stuck it out. The audience isn’t entirely sympathetic to Elle either, as one of 3’s many pointless subplots involves her being needlessly cruel to her widowed father’s new girlfriend, Linda. Elle’s personality-devoid BFF Lee and himbo (yet somehow Harvard student?) boyfriend Noah spend large chunks of the trilogy attempting to have her entire existence revolve around her relationship with them. With that ever-so-slight moral improvement, we’re left to fully comprehend just how detestable the main characters are. If there’s any mark of progress to be found in The Kissing Booth 3, it’s that the gross over-sexualisation of its teenage lead isn’t as apparent as it was in the first film.
#The kissing booth film series
The Kissing Booth does not feel like a film series as much as it does one endless barrage of romanticised toxic behaviour, mind-numbing dialogue, and pop culture nuggets that, if they weren’t dated before, became dated the moment they were referenced. It’s just the worst bits of the genre stapled together a copy of a copy of a copy with no soul to be found. There’s no attempt at adding any novelty, like a cool app or a character’s abnormal height. The series’ lead character, Elle Evans, has conventionally attractive high schooler problems: she has exactly one (1) dead parent and lives in a really nice house and goes to a posh private school, despite her family apparently being “poor”.īut what makes The Kissing Booth special is how it manifests teen rom-com tropes at their most unoriginal, baffling and ill-conceived.
#The kissing booth film movie
On paper, these movies are indistinguishable from every other aggressively cheesy movie this genre has spat out in recent years. Distributed by Netflix, the franchise’s maculate conception came from a 2012 Wattpad story written by a 15-year-old, which should tell you all you need to know. The trilogy is directed and written by Vince Marcello, an incredibly middle-aged man with an incredibly middle-aged way of making a teen rom-com (out-of-touch and creepy). To watch The Kissing Booth trilogy is to stare into and be completely engulfed by a dark abyss where the construct of time is no longer relevant where a 2-minute flash mob set to Walk the Moon’s ‘Shut Up and Dance’ feels like an eternity. Even the films’ respective runtimes (the second one is over 2 hours long) are incomparable, as they all feel so much longer than they actually are. Here's a look at some parts of the movies that grown-up viewers might be more inclined to identify with.About 20 minutes before the end of The Kissing Booth 3, I realised that there’s no possible way I could determine whether it was better or worse than its predecessors. Throughout the film, all of the characters must learn to cope with the new pressures and pratfalls of adulthood, which means "The Kissing Booth 3" has a lot to offer even the most seasoned of audiences. What starts off as a summer of fun, friendship, and romance at the beach turns into a major test for Elle's relationships with Noah, Lee, her family, and even herself as she looks to the future to determine what will be the best course for her.
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The final film in the romantic series finally answers the question of what will happen to Elle Evans (Joey King), Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), Lee (Joel Courtney), and all of their favorite - and some not so favorite - friends after high school.
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After all, there's still so much to talk about when it comes to the final stretch of this heartwarming story. "The Kissing Booth” film series might've come to a bittersweet end with the third installment, but it's not quite time to shut down the carnival just yet. This content was paid for by Netflix and created by Looper.