Film: The Kissing Booth 3

Cast:  Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Molly Ringwald, Taylor Zakhar Perez, Maisie Richardson-Sellers

Director: Vince Marcello

OTT: Netflix

Rating: 2.5 Moons

Let’s have the hard truth first, Netflix’s The Kissing Booth 3 franchise will not be able to make a place in the iconic teenange rom-com films genre. The first film started off with sexist and retrograde attitudes towards its high-school lead characters, the second one brought in clichéd romantic tropes but the third one just fails to understand its lead protagonist. Based on Beth Reeckles’ YA novels, lead star Joey King tries hard to inject some humour and heart into her Elle Evans but ends up crashing by the end of the film; the trilogy finally ends with a predictable, clichéd and forgettable finale.

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In the third part of the franchise, we see Elle make a decision about which college she wants to go to. On the one hand there is Harvard, where her boyfriend Noah (Jacob Elordi) studies while on the other hand is Berkeley, where her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney) wants to go to. Joel and Elle have set of best-friend rules that they adhere to and one of them is going to the same college. However, with this film, Elle finally understands that she cannot make everyone happy in her life and realizes that she has to make her own decisions and stick by them and how can she juggle her very different relationships with two very different brothers (for the unversed, Noah and Lee are brothers). Unfortunately, Elle’s entire identity is rooted in her relationship with Noah and Lee, without them she is a non-entity.

There is some romantic tension with Marco Pena (Taylor Zakhar Perez) who is still stuck up on Elle after the second film and the appearance of some jealousy from Noah’s good pal, Chloe Winthrop (Maisie Richardson-Sellers). However, the sub plots don’t help the film much due to sloppy and unenthusiastic writing. The group continues to go through the same fights and the same tropes seen numerous times and dealt with in the previous two films with alarming regularity. You might blame teenage years and hormones but then after three films in, how can the franchise not get the emotions, strife and trials right?

The Kissing Booth 3 could have tried to portray a more adult, honest life of the teenagers with actual problems but it sticks to immature and superficial territory. Even the romance between Elle and Noah is stifled and Lee and Elle promise more chemistry than the romantic pair. The film is highly clichéd and mirrors the storyline of another Netflix rom-com To All The Boys 2 and 3. However, the latter release a lot of acclaim for telling the story of an American-Korean teen. Lara Jean Covey and Elle Evans have a lot in common but the former has a better fleshed out character that kinda stands on her own and is not defined by her relationships with other men in their life.

However, to give credit where it’s due, Vince Marcello’s The Kissing Booth 3 has gotten slightly better than its predecessors and takes a bold move with its climax and Elle finally gets some redemption.

PeepingMoon.co gives The Kissing Booth 3, 2.5 Moons