Reviews of to All the Boys Ive Loved Before
To All the Boys I've Loved Earlieris a swoon-worthy teen romantic comedy with a center of gold and a trailblazing protagonist.
To All the Boys I've Loved Earlier comes on the heels of Set information technology Up and Crazy Rich Asians, which seems to cement 2018 every bit the comeback of the romantic one-act. And while To All the Boys I've Loved Before would seem like information technology has the least pedigree of the three, it's one of the best teen movies I've seen in years—including movies I loved this year likeLove, Simon and Blockers. That's because it, for the about part, subverts the typical teen rom-com cliches.
One part of that is casting Vietnamese-born extra Lana Condor as the pb character who was written in Jenny Han'due south book of the same name every bit a half-Korean, one-half-Caucasian girl—something that not every Hollywood adaptation of a prior property has done. However, the other office of the flick's success is that Susan Johnson took those typical rom-com cliches in the movie and simply makes them work. Information technology has the typical structure of a rom-com, merely fills that construction with realistic—but still over-the-top—characters and a star-making operation by Condor.
Condor plays Lara Jean Covey, your typical high school educatee who awkwardly tries to discover someone to sit with in the cafeteria, is afraid to drive, and harbors crushes on boys that she barely has contact with. However, different almost teens, she writes letters to each of her crushes—the messages are equally embarrassing as you'd think—and hides them away in a gift box her deceased female parent gave her. Some of those crushes include a eye schoolhouse spin-the-canteen kiss, Peter (Noah Centineo), her Freshman year homecoming appointment Lucas (Trezzo Mahoro), and her sister Margot's young man and former friend Josh (Israel Broussard).
That terminal crush is the one that could have the most devastating effect for Laura Jean since Margot (played by Janel Parrish) has broken up with Josh right before she left for college in Scotland. That'southward why when the letters somehow become out in typical rom-com manner, Lara Jean hatches a plan to avoid an awkward discussion virtually his alphabetic character.
💌 Sign upwardly for our weekly email newsletter with flick recommendations bachelor to stream.
That program involves another one-time crush, Peter, now the school'southward most popular lacrosse-playing jock who just broke up with his girlfriend and Lara Jean's former best friend Gen (Emilija Baranac), pretending to exist her fake boyfriend to convince Josh she'due south non in love with him anymore. But Peter has his ain motivation for the faux relationship. He desperately wants Gen back since she left him for a higher student.
Though the plot is equally teen rom-com as information technology gets and the story beats don't stray too far from the standard—there are ridiculous parties in enormous mansions, a climactic school upshot that is a turning bespeak for the movie, a leaked embarrassing moment caught on camera—Johnson makes every single moment count, even the corny ones.
Merely what struck me the most was the emotional moments. Surprisingly they had a lot of impact, peculiarly a moment where Lara Jean and her father (John Corbett) reminisce virtually her mother and he tells her a story about a diner they'd frequent. A lot of rom-coms can feel similar they lack a human being element, simply it's alive and well To All The Boys I've Loved Before.
The reason Netflix has been so successful in churning out romantic comedies is that they realize they don't take to reinvent the wheel. To All the Boys I've Loved Earlier doesn't do much to surprise, just it has centre, something that the barrage of rom-coms that came out in the 2000s didn't take. Don't sleep on this movie just because it's familiar—save for a atomic number 82 character and player blazing a trail for multifariousness—To All The Boys I've Loved Earlier is a shell-worthy pic that will have your eye swooning.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before is now streaming on Netflix. You can get the novel here.
Karl Delossantos
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and moving picture critic at Boom Cut. I started Blast Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't withal seen represented. I'm likewise an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-canonical critic, and a member of the Online Pic Critics Society.
Source: https://smashcutreviews.com/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-review/