Netflix‘s overflowing fountain of original content is overwhelming, promising that there will never be enough time to watch everything. But for all the issues with its volume, at least its own films will never leave the streaming platform due to rights windows, ensuring that I – and teens worldwide – will always be able to watch the delightful “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” whenever we need a pick-me-up. Based on Jenny Han‘s bestselling YA novel, this romance is a balm to a variety of stresses, even if that stress is simply not knowing how you’ll be able to watch all of the everything on the streaming service.
As with any good teen movie, the secondhand embarrassment quotient is high here. Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor) is 16 years old, and she hasn’t had a boyfriend. Instead, she has an active fantasy life, thanks to the romance novels she devours and inserts herself into. She has filled a box in her closet with five love letters: one each for the five boys she’s had crushes on in her young life. Her meddling younger sister Kitty (the absolutely adorable Anna Cathcart) mails them, turning Lara Jean’s quiet social life upside down and making me cringe harder than a year’s worth of Teen Magazine’s “Why Me?” entries. The two most dangerous letters go to Josh Sanderson (Israel Broussard), her older sister Margot’s (Janel Parrish) recent ex-boyfriend, and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), her ex-best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Lara Jean and Peter make a deal: they’ll pretend to date, so Josh will think she doesn’t like him and Peter’s ex will be jealous.
It’s a pretty standard plot for a teen film (seemingly the only place where fake relationships are common), but the details are what sets this sweet, funny drama apart. The manufactured romance between Lara Jean and Peter drives the story forward, but the emotions feel real. ‘To All the Boys’ opens its heart wide, and nudges the guarded Lara Jean and its audience to do the same. This is a movie about trust and taking leaps, and they’re lessons that aren’t just needed by teens.
‘To All the Boys’ is populated with real developed characters and relationships. Condor is relatable, perfectly expressing Lara Jean’s wide range of emotions (do you remember being 16?). She is undeniably the movie’s heart and soul, but the adaptation from screenwriter Sofia Alvarez doesn’t just focus on her feelings for Josh and Peter. Instead, it fully develops Lara Jean, as well as her connections to family and friends, spending time fleshing out each person and their interactions. They don’t only exist in service of her romances; these are precise characters, never just stereotypes and they’re never only defined by Lara Jean.
Michael Fimognari‘s cinematography makes the film look like it’s shot with Instagram’s beloved Clarendon filter, with golden skin tones and amped-up blues and greens. But there’s visual interest beyond just the movie’s colors. There is real craft and ingenuity in director Susan Johnson‘s style; it’s not just a lot of shot reverse shot, and the execution of inserting Lara Jean’s fantasies into the real world works visually and thematically.
Produced by Gen-Z content hub AwesomenessTV, ‘To All the Boys’ is remarkable because it isn’t just going to appeal to its target audience. I’m at the stage in my life where I’m more likely to develop a crush on the protagonist’s father than the object of her affection – and no offense to Paul Dooley, John Mahoney, and Larry Miller, but no teen movie dad has ever been as hot as John Corbett here – but Johnson’s film still resonates. There’s emotional complexity, making it work for more than just its key demo. Like everyone else, adolescent audiences long to see themselves on screen (I didn’t need a Buzzfeed quiz to tell me that I was Kat Stratford). Having the lead role be played by an Asian actress matters, particularly for young Asian and Asian-American women. Lara Jean’s Korean heritage isn’t a big deal in the film, but it will be a big deal to those who haven’t seen themselves represented as the protagonist in a movie made for them before now.
‘To All the Boys’ is quite aware of where it stands in the teen movie canon, referencing “Sixteen Candles” as an enduring classic but not letting it off the hook for its racist treatment of Long Duk Dong. Unlike Netflix’s recent, reviled original “The Kissing Booth,” this isn’t a disposable film with a shelf life as short as its audience’s attention span. Instead, like this year’s other stellar teen romance “Love, Simon,” ‘To All the Boys’ is likely to be watched on repeat for years to come by romance fans of all ages. [B+]