Some movie nights are dedicated to the infamous chick flicks. Relaxing, wearing the latest facial mask from Sephora and your favorite fuzzy socks, the only struggle you face is trying to find the best chick flick to watch. Believe it or not, it can be hard deciding whether or not to watch "Mean Girls" or "Bring it On" for the billionth time. Good news, the latest Netflix original film "The Kissing Booth" is a nice addition to the famous genre.
"The Kissing Booth" stars your basic teenage looking actors and what Hollywood considers the teen populations’ appearance these days. Then, they throw in the 80s queen of coming of age movies, Molly Ringwald to shake things up, but in all honesty, they do a good job of having each character fit their given role even though the portrayal of current high school students is way over dramatized. The story centers on Elle Evans (Joey King "Ramona and Beezus") and the struggle she faces falling in love with her best friend’s rebellious brother Noah.
Like most coming of age comedies, Elle is considered dorky and invisible. Noah kisses her at a school carnival kissing booth, and the rest is pretty much the typical ups and downs that we’ve seen in other teen movies and shows. It includes all the scenes that have been done before including the nerd falling in love with the popular jock. But "The Kissing Booth" has a nice little twist, it includes a little bit of reality, people evolve. You will find yourself both cringing and swooning while watching.
BTW, not gonna lie, Noah is kinda hot.
"The Kissing Booth" storyline was kind of all over the place. Elle wants to be happy, her best friend and her father disapprove of what’s going on, and there is the constant reminder to the audience that this relationship blossomed from a carnival kissing boot. It becomes bothersome and so does all the cliche shots of Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Pier. Once you look past that though, you see that overall it’s a cute movie.
It may not stack up to "10 Things I Hate About You" because, let's be real Heath Ledger is the bomb, and it doesn’t live up to "Clueless" because '90s Alicia Silverstone’s style is everything, but "The Kissing Booth" was a nice movie to kick back, relax, and watch on a lazy Friday night.