The Kissing Booth released in 2018 was a pretty big hit for Netflix. This is a teen romantic comedy/drama with more of an emphasis on drama is you ask me. It is one of those movies that did not get a ton of praise from critics, but Netflix really struck gold with it as many people who watched it had a great time with it and it would ultimately go onto become a franchise for the streaming platform!
How to Stream or Download The Kissing Booth
You can stream it or you can download the film using the Netflix App. Check out also our reviews of the two sequels – The Kissing Booth 2 (2020) and The Kissing Booth 3 (2021).
The Movie Review
The movie is about a high school girl called, Ellie who is played by Joey King. Ellie and her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney) are not exactly two of the cool kids, but they have a great friendship and are there for each other. Things are complicated when Ellie develops a massive crush and ultimately starts a relationship with Noah (Jacob Elordi) who is Lee’s older brother.
As far as teen romantic comedies go, The Kissing Booth has pretty much every cliché in the book that you could imagine. It is ultra-predictable and you can see where it is going a mile away, but that does not mean it is bad. The movie does have a lot of heart and the four main characters (Lee has a girlfriend called, Rachel played by Meganne Young) all have great chemistry together.
What I think the movie does very well is being fun. The whole premise of the movie is that Ellie and Lee develop the idea of having a kissing booth at their school for a fundraiser. These two have a very quirky and special relationship, but it is 100 percent platonic. Lee is obviously not thrilled when he hears about her love for his brother.
It is very interesting in that I do not think it is played that Lee is jealous she loves Noah, but it is more that he feels betrayed by the way the relationship happens and the secrecy about it that hurts him. It makes it a movie where there really is not a bad guy and you can kind of see things from everyone’s point of view.
I know that on paper, this sounds like a dumb teenage high-school movie, but it works because it has a lot of heart. The movie is shot very well and the actors do a decent job bringing these characters to life. Granted, I have never read the book that this is based on and I was not exactly looking forward to watching this when my wife suggested it. Yet, I found myself far more entertained by it than I thought I would.
One of the most interesting things about The Kissing Booth for me was how it became this cult hit pretty much right away. Netflix fast-tracked not one, but two sequels and as I write this, The Kissing Booth is actually a trilogy. It also looks like there could be more from this series on the way as each movie has done very well. As far as teen comedies/dramas go, you can do a lot worse than this!
