Friday, February 28, 2020

Romancefest 2020: The Kissing Booth


-->
Written by Vince Marcello, based on the novel by Beth Reekles. Directed by Vince Marcello. Starring Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi and Molly Ringwald. USA, 2018.

Two high school best friends face complications in their relationship when one of them falls in love with the other’s older brother, who has anger issues. At first they try to keep the relationship secret, but they can only hide it for so long.

This movie was weird when it came to tone – it’s ostensibly meant to be a romantic comedy, but attempts to deal with the older brother’s anger issues in a realistic manner. It’s hard to know when to take it seriously or not. Also, the objectification of the female lead’s body was confusing. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the movie seemed to be preoccupied with contriving ways to get her half-naked, to the point of distraction. In some movies this might not stick out, but it seemed strange for a PG-13 story told from the female character’s point of view. I know, I know, lots of coming of age movies have stuff like this, especially sex comedies – it just seems weird, here, like it’s visually exploitative in a way the material doesn’t really ask for.

No comments:

Post a Comment