Review of The Kissing Booth (2018) by Layla M — 14 Jul 2018

I wasn't surprised when I started reading what others thought of "The Kissing Booth". Almost instantly after the movie came out (after a grand festival of promotion from Netflix, might I add), I was bombarded with friends and even family telling me I had to watch it, although I was to keep in mind the movie was an absolute cliche.

Unfortunately, it is.

There's nothing wrong with cliche, after all, the whole reason cliches exist is because SOMEONE enjoys watching them over and over again, and more often than not, sure, I am that person. But not this time.

"The Kissing Booth" was born after a fifteen year-old decided to write a story on the popular fan fiction app, Wattpad. Skip ahead, a multimillion company decides to take the project and adapt it to their huge audience, however, the word "adaptation" must've been erased from the crew's mind.

With all due respect to the team of people who worked hard to make this movie happen, an adaptation doesn't always have to be verbatim, that is, identical to the original material, and, granted, I haven't read the original work, but as someone with an extensive history in and around the fanfiction community and it's many websites, I must say, I am not surprised this movie was written by a 15 year-old.

"The Kissing Booth" introduces us to our very simplistic main characters:

- Elle, the shy and sweet girl who loves to dance yet is super insecure about showing her body, something which is conveyed multiple times throughout the movie only to be ultimately ignored for the sake of plot.

- Lee Flynn, the childhood best friend (and frankly only friend) of the female protagonist, who spends every second of every day with her and cares a lot about their friendship.

- Noah Flynn, the by-the-book bad boy who's the forbidden fruit Elle simply NEEDS to have, even if it is against the rules of their friendship.

Now, the plot of "The Kissing Booth", may sound silly: two best friends decide to make a kissing booth for their schools fundraising event and the main character ends up kissing her best friends brother; but, again, that is because it was written by a very young person, and that is exactly what I have a problem with.

This movie was written by a fifteen year old girl, which, at times, is quite surprising. Not only because she fails to give any dimension to her female characters, but also because she bluntly excuses abusive and toxic behaviours for the sake of a middle school level love story.

Lee Flynn, our supposed love interest, is nothing but an entitled and frankly terrifying young man. He is going to a very prestigious school at the end of the movie, which sounds odd when considering we never actually see him studying that much, but you know what we do see him doing? Tackling a boy to the ground and beating him (twice), slamming his hands against a car and screaming at Elle to get in, telling Elle she deserved to get groped (you know, because comedy), yelling at her, dragging her in a very physically abusive manner by her arm and telling the other boys in her school (yes, all of them) that if any of them asks her out, he'll punch them; and that's before they even start dating! Personally, the entire movie I couldn't stand Lee, but them I think about how this movie is aimed at young girls and Noah doesn't ACTUALLY has to be a good person, he just needs to be hot, and that is perfectly conveyed through Joel Courtney, so bravo movie. However, my anger towards Courtney's character comes to the fullest when, after Elle hurts herself while helping him, his brother walks in on him trying to fix Elle's face and the FIRST thing he says is: "did you hit her?", how physically unstable does one have to be for their own family to suspect they would hurt a much smaller woman?

Overall, the cinematographic decisions made in this movie are very dumb and crazy, because you CANNOT TRANSCRIPT EVERYTHING FROM WORD TO IMAGE IN A MANNER THAT MAKES SENSE FOR THE VIEWER, and while I am a big fan of the "show, don't tell" rule, the movie plays around with it like it is a sick joke. The scene when Noah and Elle first kiss might be enough of an example, but also the numerous times where she hides herself and shows discomfort in her own skin, only to start pole dancing in front of a bunch of boys to make Noah jealous.

In the end, "The Kissing Booth" is another sad excuse to make teenage girls believe abuse is sexy and bad boys can be changed with the love in your heart. It is a simplistic and dumb movie that uses the exact same storytelling you can find in fanfiction, and although I appreciate the actors trying their best with the fiery garbage that is that script, it still wasn't enough to save the movie.