Romantic comedies have been around since the beginning of film itself. Luckily for us, it appears that every couple of months Netflix releases a new wave of movies, including these loveable rom coms. The newest and greatest hits of this season have been two book-to-movie adaptations: The Kissing Booth (May 2018), To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (August 2018) and a Netflix Original, Sierra Burgess is a Loser (September 2018). These new rom coms have captured the hearts of all teenagers around the world, and have even caught the hearts of some adults.
Now, what do all three films have in common? Well, for starters, 2 out of the 3 films feature the gorgeous heartthrob Noah Centineo as the male lead. Not only that, but their plots are somewhat similar. While watching these romantic teenage comedies, the similarities between TATBILB, SBIAL and TKB were uncanny. The plots were surprisingly similar: unpopular girl gets noticed by the popular, “pretty” boy and poof! The quirky (but loveably so) main character gets the boy of her dreams and lives a fairy tale life with him (so we can presume). While it seems that nowadays, most films follow that cliche, we all desire a film that does not follow all the standard “rom com rules.”
The one thing that sets these movies apart from each other is how they portray teenage romance. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before depicts teenage love as playful, witty and to the surprise of no one, heartbreaking. From the wise words of Lara Jean Covey, “Love is scary: it changes ; it can go away. That’s part of the risk.” Sierra Burgess is a Loser depicts love as a game, showing the extreme actions for love (which is a huge part of the plot: Sierra B is a catfish!) and The Kissing Booth contains a blend of what teenage romance is actually like and what most teens dream of.Overall, while all three movies exceeded personal expectations, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is by far the best out of the three films. The character development is shown well and there are several positive messages throughout the film. The Kissing Booth, while unrealistic at times, does show great character growth throughout the duration of the movie, but sends a bad message about playing with other’s feelings. And lastly, Sierra Burgess is a Loser had an intriguing plot at the beginning (yay strong female lead!), but unfortunately, went downhill from there with the message, “Catfishing is okay because in the end you’ll still end up with the hot guy.” Regardless, all three movies are definitely worth the watch if you enjoy the typical, cheesy, cliche teenage rom-com.
