Ah, February: the time of year for love, chocolate, and most importantly, cheesy romantic comedies. There are the classics, like “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sixteen Candles,” or the fan-favorites like “10 Things I Hate About You” and “500 Days of Summer.” This year, Netflix celebrated Valentine’s Day by releasing their own cheesy romance film, “To All The Boys: Always And Forever.”
The film is the third edition to the “To All The Boys I Loved Before” film series, the first of which was released on Netflix in 2018. The series is based on the books by Jenny Han and follows the story of Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor), a teenage hopeless-romantic. In the first film, Lara Jean has to deal with the aftermath of her secret love letters being sent to their recipients, one of them being her older sister’s boyfriend. She fakes a relationship with one of the boys who received a letter, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), in order to deceive her sister’s boyfriend who learns of Lara Jean’s crush. Eventually, Lara Jean and Peter’s fake romance blossoms into a real one.
The first film received praise for its creative storyline, its vibrant cinematography, but most importantly for being one of the first young-adult films to feature an Asian-American in the titular role.
The newest film, which was released on Feb. 12, follows the couple as they prepare to graduate from high school. Lara Jean has her future planned out with Peter: they both will attend Stanford University, have successful careers, get married, and so on. However, their plans are thwarted when Lara Jean is rejected from Stanford. She decides on University of California at Berkeley so that she can stay close to Peter, but when their entire graduating class flies to New York City for a senior trip, Lara Jean falls in love with the city. She visits New York University (NYU) and envisions herself attending. She then finds herself at a crossroads: she must decide whether to stay close to Peter on the west coast or follow her heart and attend NYU in the east.
The movie was a cute watch for Valentine’s Day. It is no award-winning film, but it was entertaining and sweet. The film’s selling point is definitely the chemistry between Lara Jean and Peter— the connection between Condor and Centineo makes you want to believe in love. The viewers have watched them fall in love, survive a love-triangle, and now face the challenges of a post-high school relationship.
In an interview with the New York Times, Lana Condor spoke of the Netflix hit series coming to an end.
“I’ve put so much of myself into these movies because I love them. And they’ve changed my life,” Condor said. Following the films, Condor is set to star and executively produce a new comedy series for Netflix. However, she hints that this may not be the last time we see Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky. When asked if there will be additional movies, Condor said:
“I think never say never. [But] the third is all I know. To me, that’s the ending. But I would really like to see Lara and Peter in their mid-to-late 20s.”
I watched “To All The Boys: Always And Forever” with my roommates. We all poked fun at the characters, cringed at the romantic moments, and laughed at the bad jokes together as a group. If you’re looking for a cheesy romantic comedy to watch on your next Friday night, I recommend this one.
“To All The Boys: Always And Forever” is now streaming on Netflix.
Featured Image courtesy of Mollie Sivaram via Unsplash
