To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Film Title:
To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Director:
Susan Johnson
Writer:
Sofia Alvarez

Starring:
Lana Condor, Noah Centineo

Production Company: Awesomeness Films, Overbrook Entertainment, Netflix
Release Date: August 17th 2018 (UK)

Opening to a round of positive criticism, the adaptation of Jenny Han's YA contemporary romance novel has drawn even those uninterested in the rom-com genre to pull open Netflix and have a watch. When high school student Lara Jean's private love letters to her childhood crushes get mysteriously sent out she ends up starting a charade to convince one of the aforementioned crushes that she isn't, in fact, crushing on him - a charade that of course doesn't stay as fake as first intended. A somewhat tried and tested idea, director Susan Johnson takes the author's original spin of where it goes from there with enthusiasm and charisma.

This is a teenage rom-com where you aren't left rolling your eyes at the girl's fantasies, and where the hot-shot love interest isn't actually a total dick. It's surprisingly refreshing to have a high school drama that isn't full of heartless teenagers. They're actually nice people on the whole, who are thoughtful and don't want to bulldoze all over their friend's lives

Lana Condor's delightful and loveable leading lady debut as Lara Jean - the quiet but self-aware protagonist who shows girls you don't have to be the doting girlfriend agreeing with everything you're told - bodes well for the future. And it isn't just the girls that are good, there's good representation for mixed race actors and Asian characters that has given the film a lot of its buzz. The filmmakers don't have the urge to parade it around, and it's an even bigger triumph in normalising non-white protagonists.

It's not easy to replicate the culture of social media, romantic expectations and the American high school fantasy of the 2010s, but Johnson does a pretty good job. This is a the rom-com modern teenage girls (hell, all of us) deserve: no nonsense heroines submitting to the love interest, humour in its quick-witted dialogue, and a warm and wholesome ending that makes you forget the train wreck of teenage chick flicks that were its predecessors.

Watch the trailer for To All the Boys I've Loved Before here!