Title: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Director: Susan Johnson
Lead Actors: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo
Released: August 17,2018
Genre: Teen Romance
Growing up, we all have experienced writing down all our crushes when we were younger or even writing down who we hate or what we fear. We would never expect those people receiving those letters because we would feel embarrassed; but that’s not the case in this movie.
The main character, Lara Jean (Lana Condor) was a lonely high schooler that always hung out with her younger sister, Kitty. She woke up and got ready for school thinking that it was a normal day, until a total of five guys came up to her talking about how they are honored that she liked them, but they didn’t feel the same way. She was so confused and after school, she ran home. She looked everywhere for the box with the love letters but they were nowhere to be found. She cried because of how embarrassed she was. She had no idea how the letters got out. That was until her younger sister admitted that she did it. One of the letters went to Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) who is one of the most popular guys in school. They make an alliance to make people think that they were dating in order to make Peter Kavinsky’s ex girlfriend jealous. Little did they realize what they actually signed up for.
I decided to choose this movie to review because I knew it was a good one. It relates to teenage life and it’s not to the point that it’s make believe. As a teenager, I felt the stress and anxiety that Lara Jean felt, while in high school. Since she didn’t have any friends besides her sister, she found that she was quiet lonely, which a lot of teenagers could relate to. This movie felt real, and made me very interested to know the ending and how it went. All in all, it is very different from the clique 80’s romance movies. In the middle of the movie I was shocked with what happened, which kept me on the edge of my seat. One of the reasons it was different was because they actually had a Asian American actress as the lead role, which is very hard to find in movies, especially such a popular one. Adding on to my thought, I also observed that it was updated to modern times so millennial’s would relate to it more. This would include: Iphones, mean girls, and big parties at nice, updated households that include underground pools. It provides a lot of plot twists that you will never see coming unlike the other 80’s romance movies.
Some things I found very unpleasing about this movie was that they made the male main character look like a hero when instead he was an unfaithful man. In the movie he had snuck around with someone he shouldn’t have, which caused some suspicion. He never got called out for the thing that he had done, instead he was rewarded. There was clearly a love triangle and as a teenage girl that makes me furious with rage. Knowing that someone could do you so dirty disgusts me. Secondly, I didn’t like how short the movie was because it didn’t give us a clear ending of how the two of them ended. I wish there was more of an ending to the movie rather then it just leading off with us not curious about anything, the creators just dropped the movie at the end. At the end of the movie, Lara Jean wasn’t know as the unknown girl anymore since she “dated one of the most popular guy in the school, but she mentally didn’t mature throughout the movie, which is what I really like to see in these romance type of movies.
My overall thought about this movie is, yes absolutely watch it. Even though it seems like there is a lot of negative statements about the movie, the positives definitely outweigh them! As a teenager I related to Lara Jean so much it was ridiculous! This movie is the best teen romance movie I have ever seen so far!
If you have any movie suggestions please comment 🙂
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