🦒 Review Film The Kissing Booth I will know, many thanks for the information.

These questions and more are unceremoniously wrapped up in the final entry to its namesake saga, “The Kissing Booth 3.” To Marcello and and co-writer Jay S. Arnold’s credit, there are a handful of surprises that defy some of the more expected youthful rom-com tropes. But the rest is a lot of the same teenage romantic tribulations we’ve seen before. If “The Kissing Booth 2” was overstuffed with high school drama, its successor reaches to make the most of old tensions over the summer break. Noah is once again threatened by Marco, and Lee is once again acting like a child because his best friend, who is also holding down a job and taking care of her young brother, isn’t paying enough attention to him. It’s so tiresome, that when Elle finally stands up for herself, it’s an all-too-brief reprieve from the boys’ antics. More tiresome are some of the shenanigans that these Gen Z kids get into. The annoying list of friendship rules are back with an addendum a list of random summer activities essentially cooked up by Elle to make Lee happy. For reasons I cannot explain, this includes a contest to see who can drink the most frozen drinks the fastest and survive the ensuing brain freeze, a helium-induced karaoke number that somehow brings the house down, and orchestrating a choreographed flash mob, which feels like a blast from the past decade—which could be said for many of the movie’s needle-drops. The only set piece that manages to be more creative than exhausting is a go-kart race based on the video game "Mario Kart," but only if you’re alright with the fact the kids, as they do in the game, throw items to make their competitors crash. Gentlemen, learning a TikTok dance was right there. King, who normally tries her best to sell Elle’s growing pains of young love, looks a little more checked out this time. She's left behind the wide-eyed optimism of the previous chapters for an Elle who seems so tired by it all, she can do little more than cry or snap at the new woman dating her dad. Elordi’s cool hot boyfriend shtick also seems similarly tired. His character’s macho posturing is less about connecting with Elle than being too insecure with her. Courtney seems to be the only one fully committed to his character, which unfortunately, doesn’t seem to have matured much from when he first protested over his best friend dating his brother. Even perennial scene saver Molly Ringwald, as the boys’ mother Mrs. Flynn, isn’t around for most of the movie to smooth over ruffled feathers and bruised egos. It’s hard to believe the cinematography of these movies could get worse, but believe me, it does. Likely due to the pandemic or a tight schedule, a number of close-ups of Elle, Lee, and Noah clearly have green-screened backgrounds, looking about as unnatural as many things in the story. There’s one climatic showdown, set in front of the Hollywood Hills sign, that really defies any sort of reason. It’s not so much spectacle or camp, it's just silly. For this last go-around, Marcello committed to the series’ cheaply saccharine premise and only half-heartedly tried to make it look better than an old Aéropostale from the aughts, focusing his camera on mostly white young people except for Marco and Chloe against the backdrop of a coastal sun-soaked California. “The Kissing Booth 3” has about as much depth as one of those ads. After the sand has been shaken out of shoes and final smiles have been pointed at the camera, there’s not really much more to the movie. Just a boy, a girl, and the looks they trade with each other. On Netflix today. Monica Castillo Monica Castillo is a freelance writer and University of Southern California Annenberg graduate film critic fellow. Although she originally went to Boston University for biochemistry and molecular biology before landing in the sociology department, she went on to review films for The Boston Phoenix, WBUR, Dig Boston, The Boston Globe, and co-hosted the podcast “Cinema Fix.” Now playing Film Credits The Kissing Booth 3 2021 Rated NR 111 minutes Latest blog posts about 3 hours ago about 6 hours ago about 7 hours ago 1 day ago Comments

TheKissing Booth 3 could have gone out on a conventional romantic note — say, ending on a kiss — as if to suggest that Elle and Noah will grow old and gray together. Instead, the film leaves things frustratingly uncertain, inventing a whole new list of college ambitions for Elle that hadn't even been hinted at until now.

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Movie Review You can’t help you who love. Or so they say. But is that really true? Take Elle and Lee, for instance. They’re best friends … thanks to their mothers, who were also the best of friends. On top of that, Elle and Lee were born on the same day. They love to hang out. They love to dance. They’re best friends forever. And they’ve created a list of rules to make sure that fact will never change. Friendship, of course, is their top priority. But sometimes rules can be bent, can’t they? Especially if your lifetime crush is your best friend’s older brother, Noah. Right? But Noah’s off limits. At least until a kissing booth—one that’s disguised as a school fundraiser—changes all the rules. Suddenly, Elle must decide what’s more important friendship or love. Positive Elements Elle and Lee share a sweetly close friendship. And the rule sheet they came up with when they were young has indeed helped their friendship to thrive over the years. For example, Rule 16 says that your best friend should be able to know what’s going on in your life. And both Elle and Lee are equally protective of one another and try to make each other happy. Rule 18 “Always be happy for your bestie’s successes.” A handful of other guys also have protective attitudes toward Elle. That said, she gradually learns to stick up for herself and tries to get a handle on what’s most valuable in her life as well. Elle also tries to encourage Noah to be a better person. And she faithfully stays by her mother’s side when she’s in the hospital. Lee and Noah’s mother emphasizes the importance of forgiveness. She tells Elle that arguments and disagreements are normal and must be resolved. Noah, for his part, apologizes to his brother and those he has hurt. He also mentions that he’s going to see multiple counselors. Someone chases off bullies for his friend. Spiritual Elements Someone jokes about Miley Cyrus becoming a nun. Sexual Content Despite a few positive moments, The Kissing Booth largely revolves around the theme of teens’ physical relationships with each other. At times, it feels as if Elle is practically looking for opportunities to shed her clothes. At a high school party, for instance, she disrobes down to her bra and underwear. After her pants rip in one scene, she dons a very short skirt that reveals her underwear-clad backside. A guy grabs her there, and Noah crudely quips that she was “asking for it.” She also yells, “My boobs are fantastic!” in a family setting. She’s shown on her bed wearing nothing but a towel. At one point, it almost appears as if she’s unclothed. Elle also struts around in a locker room filled with guys wearing just her bra and a skirt. Noah is also shown wearing next to nothing once, and draped in only a towel elsewhere. His chest is visible. In another scene, he appears to be completely naked, sitting on a chair, and the camera shows everything but his genital region. And we’re not done yet. One morning, Elle wakes up in Noah’s bed and thinks they slept together. He informs her that he slept elsewhere. That scene shows her in his shirt and her underwear. Later, while rolling around on the ground together, she touches his covered crotch, which she says was an “accidental groping.” When Elle and Noah finally begin a relationship, they kiss thanks to the kissing booth and make out a lot. They also take off each other’s shirts and then spend the night together. Elle talks about having had sex with him. They wake up outside covered in blankets. Elle is shown buying condoms. We see her on top of Noah, and it looks as though they’re having sex. There are sounds and movements. Elle steals a security tape that has captured video images of her and Noah presumably having sex at school. Though Elle asks herself a lot of questions about her relationship with Noah, in the end she suggests that she’s OK with being just “another one of his conquests.” Elle casually lies to Lee and tells him she was watching porn, and he asks to watch with her. Girls wear bikinis and other revealing outfits, and guys are seen shirtless and in their boxers. The camera zooms in on a guy’s rear end. Lee jokingly says, “Any excuse to cross-dress, and I’m in.” And in one scene, Lee does wear a dress. Two guys have an obvious attraction to each other and dance together. Close-ups show guys and girls kissing including shots that show tongues entangled at the kissing booth. A guy tells a girl not to grind on her love interest’s genitals. A girl talks about getting her first bra and her first period. A guy is called a “perv,” and he texts something inappropriate but we don’t see what it is. A male athlete’s “sports cup” is mentioned. A girl says that kissing gives you cold sores. Other conversations include references to the male and female anatomy. A girl is called a “slut” and a “ho.” Violent Content Noah gets into multiple fist fights. We see him punch a guy in the face several times. Noah is also extremely controlling and aggressive with Elle; at one point he shouts at her and slams his fists in frustration. Lee accuses Noah of hitting Elle though he doesn’t actually do so. Someone dies from cancer. A young boy breaks his leg as a child. Someone falls out of a window. Crude or Profane Language The f-word is used three times, and the s-word more than 10 times. God’s name is misused about half a dozen times. Jesus’ name is misused once. Other profanities include multiple uses of “a–,” “d–k,” “d–mit,” “d–n,” “h—,” “b–ch” and “douche.” Someone exclaims, “Holy crap!” Drug and Alcohol Content High school students attend numerous house and beach parties and drink hard liquor, beer once doing keg stands and shots. No one in the film seems to care that there is a ton of underage drinking going on. Elle gets very drunk at a party. Someone thinks taking an antacid will help a hangover. Other Negative Elements The parents in the film seem to be virtually absent and completely oblivious to their teens’ reckless choices. Elle hides under Noah’s bed at one point after sneaking into his room. Parents’ voices and opinions don’t matter at all, and they’re never around to guide their children or shape their values. At one point, Elle’s dad makes it clear that he doesn’t approve of Noah but tells the young man that it is Elle’s choice. It’s good that he cares about his daughter’s feelings in this one instance, at least, but the rest of the movie makes it seem as if he couldn’t care less and has absolutely no power to speak into Elle’s life or to establish boundaries for her. There’s a lot of lying going on throughout most of the film, especially by Elle. That said, she eventually confesses some things to her father. And Elle will do anything to fit in. Disturbingly, Noah “doesn’t allow” other guys to be anywhere near Elle, even though they’re not even dating. His controlling behavior is normalized throughout the entire film. Girls are rude to one another. Various characters use others for personal gain. Guys and girls sneak around together. A boy sneezes, and mucus flies into a girl’s face. Someone sets off a stink bomb. A boy gets multiple wedgies and is hit in the face with a soccer ball. Conclusion Let’s cut to the chase The Kissing Booth is a disaster on every level. Not only is it a terrible movie artistically currently at 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, it sets an equally terrible example for teens about what constitutes normal adolescent behavior. I’ve seen a lot of movies. But watching this as an adult made me feel very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to see these teenagers taking off their clothes and having sex. I didn’t want to see Elle buying condoms. I didn’t want to see them getting very drunk as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I didn’t want to see Elle’s pseudo-boyfriend treat her like a piece of property. I didn’t want to hear them continually use harsh profanity. Watching this movie also raised a lot of questions for me. Where are the parents throughout this entire film? Why do they seem to have no clue about what’s going on? Why is Elle always taking her clothes off whenever she has the chance? Why is a guy’s sexual harassment dismissed by school officials with a casual detention? And why does no one other than Lee have a problem with how controlling and aggressive Noah is? Like I said The Kissing Booth is a disaster—especially for the target audience Netflix has aimed this TV-14 at. Suffice it to say it’s not appropriate for 14-year-olds … or, really, anyone else, for that matter. Parents, get practical information from a biblical worldview to help guide media decisions for your kids!

^{Quirkyromcom has strong language, teen drinking, sex. Read Common Sense Media's The Kissing Booth review, age rating, and parents guide.}

Netflix’s continued forays into the wide world of romantic comedies — wildly popular with film fans, often overlooked by the studio system — has seen plenty of ups and downs. The streaming giant won acclaim for series like “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and one-offs like “Set It Up,” but its romcom picks are just as prone to flaming out as setting the world on fire. While Vince Marcello’s 2018 adaptation of Beth Reekles’ YA novel “The Kissing Booth” scored big in terms of viewership, critical appraisals were not so kind; with a 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is one of Netflix’s worst-reviewed originals. Critics aside, the streamer gave the people what they want. Joey King returns to star in a sequel to the high school romcom —and “The Kissing Booth 2” is better than its predecessor, but that’s hardly a big ask. While the first film was rife with sexist rhetoric, casual slut-shaming, and a “bad boy” lead who never met a put-down or a punch he didn’t like, its sequel tones down the offensive BS, finding something sweeter and far more enjoyable in the process. Even for audiences not turned off by the regressive attitudes of the original, its oddly aggressive tone was never, well, romantic, a misstep that Marcello now attempts to rectify. And yet the greatest strength of “The Kissing Booth 2,” an overstuffed clocking in at a whopping 132 minutes mishmash of genre tropes and tricks, isn’t its many romances; it’s King, who finally gets to spread her wings and her comedic chops. Picking up just 27 days after the conclusion of “The Kissing Booth” — a series of zippy montages catch us up on what’s happened since Noah Jacob Elordi headed off to college after a blissful summer with Elle King — the sequel leans into its change of heart early. Noah is a new man read a dedicated boyfriend who shows no signs of his past history of cheating, trash talk, and getting into fights and is heading off to Harvard, despite his discomfort leaving Elle, who is gearing up for her senior year and already seems alight with more agency and confidence. While “The Kissing Booth” focused on their forbidden romance, mostly steeped in the weirdness of Elle going for her best friend Lee’s Joel Courtney big brother a secret relationship that put a temporary ding in the duo’s lifelong bond, “TKB2” is more concerned with what happens now that their romance is affirmed and accepted. Attempting to be more mature, Elle opts to give Noah his space — but that move keeps the gossip hounds talking, and makes Noah wonder if the pair are really meant to be. Enter a pair of sexy potential rivals Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Noah’s college pal Chloe, Taylor Zakhar Perez as Elle’s new classmate Marco, and the film’s aim seems pretty clear. “The Kissing Booth 2”Marcos Cruz/Netflix “The Kissing Booth 2” also folds in a long and repetitive subplot involving Lee’s girlfriend Rachel Meganne Young, a trip to Boston, drama about which college Elle wants to attend, and an incredibly long section that sees Elle and Marco attempt to win a massive virtual dance competition. Again, with 132 minutes to fill, there’s plenty here. It’s not all good. And then there’s the series of bizarre perspective shifts in which the film is suddenly being told by Noah, or the film’s insistence on yet another titular kissing booth, shoehorned in at the last possible moment. More happens in the film’s first hour than in some full seasons of television, suggesting that “The Kissing Booth” might have fared better as an episodic offering rather than an overstuffed film franchise that never finds its footing. Other missteps will surely be familiar to fans of the first film, including that “The Kissing Booth 2” suffers from a classic case of being a “high school” film oddly populated by stars long out of the school system while King, Courtney, and Elordi are all in their early twenties, many of their co-stars are not, and the effect of seeing obvious adults traipsing through teenage drama is nothing short of bizarre. Even during its best bits, the film never coalesces into a workable whole. At least that allows for some wacky fun, with King getting to flex her comedic muscles a scene in which she waxes poetic about Marco’s body is both out of place and a welcome injection of pure comedy into this lighter sequel. It also makes space for some very big dramas, and the film’s last half is filled with genuinely shocking moments, the kind that land with an enough impact like a wrenching Thanksgiving dinner to suggest that “The Kissing Booth 2,” for all it messiness, might have some sneaky emotional weight to it. “The Kissing Booth 2”Marcos Cruz/Netflix Still, that doesn’t keep the film from being predictable, even as it continues to pile on the complications. While it offers some necessary growth for all of its characters, “The Kissing Booth 2” can never resist looking and acting like dozens of other offerings of its genre ilk, unable to grow beyond basic complications and done-to-death dramas. And yet there are hints that its evolution has a few more tricks left to employ, its winking conclusion only one of them. Minor spoilers ahead. Much like its predecessor, “The Kissing Booth 2” sets up for a sequel. While “The Kissing Booth” offered something of an open-ended conclusion, the latest chapter all but begs for at least one more edition. This time, however, that possibility seems less like a threat, and more of a chance for some rare franchise redemption. Grade C+ “The Kissing Booth 2” is now streaming on Netflix.

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review film the kissing booth