The Kissing Booth Synopsis: A high school student is forced to confront her secret crush at a kissing booth.
Elle (Joey King) and Lee (Joel Courtney) have been best friends since childhood. They even had a long list of “rules” for their friendship, including #9, no dating Lee’s hunky older brother, Noah (Jacob Elordi).
Wouldn’t you know it, though? Elle has harbored a crush on Noah for years, even though he’s bossy, a player, and controlling. Flash forward to junior year of high school, where Lee and Elle have to devise a way to raise money for a school fundraiser. They finally decide on a kissing booth, which leads to Noah and Elle locking lips. Their mutual attraction grows until they choose to date secretly until Elle can find a way to tell Lee about her new romance with his brother.
So, when COVID started, and I began working from home, The Kissing Booth was one of the teen rom-coms I attempted to watch. I got about twenty minutes into it and had to turn it off. I don’t know if I wasn’t in the mood to watch it or if it was so bad from the get-go that I had little patience to suffer. Fast forward to August, and I finally decided to finish this movie. Don’t ask me why, okay? So many romantic comedies are generally hated, but I end up loving them, so I thought maybe this would be one of those times.
It was not.
Let me get this out of the way first – there aren’t any bad performances here unless you count the supporting players like the OMG girls, who are the poor man’s Plastics (Mean Girls). Braindead, no personality, and one-dimensional. But honestly, the main cast was perfectly fine, despite the material given to them. I like Joey King as an actress. Joel Courtney was fantastic in Super 8, and even though his character was problematic, Jacob Elordi brought some depth to his role. Considering Elordi shines in Euphoria, it’s clear to me the issue with this movie isn’t the acting; it’s the writing. The plot is exceptionally bland and predictable.
There’s too much exposition at the beginning of the film, which is then quickly stuffed with trope upon trope, none of which are executed all that well. We even get a “falling in love” montage. Of course, there’s nothing really wrong with that, but the dialogue is cringe-y and induces massive eye-rolling. There were so many contrived scenes as well – Elle and Noah, both half-naked, getting caught in a curtain and rolling around on the floor together (The Proposal did it better), Elle giving the boys’ locker room a little strip tease to stick it to Noah, etc., etc. It felt so forced that I had to pause it several times and take a break.
For me, The Kissing Booth is another attempt to prove how true love can help transform the sexist, temperamental heartthrob into the perfect boyfriend. I’m also tired of the “we’re best friends, but you can’t date my brother/sister!” trope. It just reeks of controlling, unhealthy friendships, and I would much rather see some new, more original plot devices used in these films. I kept hoping Lee would come to his senses and do something selfless for his best friend by being okay with Elle and Noah’s relationship, but even that was a total letdown.
Simply put, The Kissing Booth is not a good movie. It’s not even “so bad, it’s good!” material. It reminded me of a lot of fanfiction I used to read as a teenager, and then I realized this is based on a piece of fiction posted on Wattpad, so… I guess that makes sense. I’m giving this one star simply because I liked the three main actors and… I’m probably going to watch The Kissing Booth 2. I keep reading that it’s over two hours long, so I’ll probably wait for an evening when I can drink.
Watched: 08/05/2020
Notable Song: Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse
