MATURE CONTENT? Netflix's Rating: TV-14 Why?: Strong language, sex and drinking (see below for more details)
SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
The Kissing Booth, based on the novel by Beth Reekles, is a teen romantic comedy depicting the trouble high school junior Elle Evans gets into when she falls for her best friend’s older brother—something she promised never to do.
Elle and her platonic best friend Lee were inseparable since they were born on the same day in the same hospital. They created a set of friendship rules to protect their special relationship, including one forbidding either of them to get involved romantically with the any of the other’s relatives. But after Lee’s brother Noah, a bad-boy football player with a bookish side, starts treating Elle in strange ways, the two have a chance encounter at a kissing booth and things spiral from there. Torn between the two brothers, Elle faces flaring tension and difficult decisions.
CRITICAL REVIEW
The Kissing Booth is the epitome of teenage romantic comedy movies, including its plain-girl-somehow-gets-the-hottest-guy-in-school plot and all the silly drama and making out that comes along with it. The film doesn’t beat around bushes in its attempts to capture the genre–from its blatant inclusion of a popular mean-girl clique to its romanticizing of prom and bad boys on motorcycles.
Arguably the best part of the entire movie is Molly Ringwald’s character, who plays Noah and Lee’s mom and Elle’s mother figure after her mom passes away. Her presence alone in the film hones back to classics The Kissing Booth is trying to be: 16 Candles, Breakfast Club and all those 80s works of romantic perfection. Ringwald’s cinema history holds so much weight that the film is elevated to a higher status just by her presence (though her screen time is, sadly, limited).
Joey King does well in the main character’s shoes—she’s got some great acting chops and brought her character just a bit further out from the cliches it was grounded in. And Joel Courtney plays a great goofy yet loveable best friend character. Jacob Elordi, on the other hand, didn’t exactly shine as the bad boy love interest. His performance was a bit dull, and didn’t capture that mysterious allure his character stereotype is supposed to have. And—it must be pointed out—Elordi and King’s height difference is just way too distracting.
The bottom line: The Kissing Booth captures just about every teen romantic comedy cliche in all its cheesy, fun glory. If you enjoy the genre, you’ll definitely enjoy this new edition to the line-up. If you shy away from improbable teen romances and dramatic 16-year-olds, keep scrolling through the Netflix queue.
WHAT MORMONS/PARENTS NEED TO KNOW
This is a rambunctious teenage movie with all the things that come with what moviemakers tend to imagine high school is like: sex, drinking, strong language and lots of skin (seriously, Noah seems to spend less screen time with a shirt on than without, and Elle always seems to be stripping down to her underwear or bikini).
The sexual content is more implied than explicit, but fairly frequent. And the messages behind the sexual content aren't too great—promoting teen sex early in relationships.
Language is strong and frequent, and the teen parties get a bit out of hand.
There are a few positive messages, such as the value of friendship and honesty in Elle and Lee's relationship. But overall, there aren't any profound positive messages.
Warning: the trailer, oddly enough, has a fair amount of spoilers