If you like stereotypical forbidden romance in a cheesy high school setting with mediocre acting, add The Kissing Booth to your watch list for Netflix. A Netflix original directed by Vince Marcello, this teen appeal tells a story about a secret love that develops between Elle (Joey King) and best friend Lee’s (Joel Courtney) dreamy older brother Noah (Jacob Elordi) after they share a intimate kiss at their school fair, breaking rule #9 on “Lee and Elle’s list of rule’s” (a set of rules they made as kids to withhold their friendship forever).

I watched this movie as soon as it came out on Netflix, because I was curious as to what sort of actress Joey King had become since her stardom in Ramona and Beezus, and c’mon now… Jacob Elordi is truly a cutie. When the movie first started, I was a bit skeptical about the main character narrating in the background because it was just TOO cliche. Lee’s character was innocent and quirky, but he shared absolutely no resemblance with Noah, making the movie even more unrealistic. The rest of the characters? Irrelevant.

As the movie developed, so did the plot, which involved an unexpected kiss at a kissing booth, a typical teen party at Lee and Noah’s boujee house, prom (because what high school rom-com doesn’t have a prom) and a predicted ending I will obviously not spoil. My biggest problem with the movie as a whole, is that they carried the conflict within the story FAR way to long into the ending. As in you really truly thought this was going to happen, aaaand then your dreams of the movie finally being over are crushed. Like c’mon man, we just want the main characters to share a kiss and then ride into the sunlight already. 

The plot line itself is too predictable to truly enjoy the movie, or feel any sort of suspense as to what will happen next; which is what usually reels watchers in. But isn’t any teen Rom-com absurdly predictable and cringe now-a-days? Despite it all, the movie does depict some truth behind the importance of friendship as well as correctly displaying high school stereotypes in a pretty idealistic setting (Los Angeles, California). Overall, as negatively as I may have spoken regarding this movie, The Kissing Booth is still worth watching if you are bored after 10 p.m. with nothing but a tub of ice cream. 

Final verdict: C+