Letter of Recommendation Ella Gillen Photo: https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/movies-tv/a21238098/kissing-booth-fun-facts/
I have bad taste in movies. No, I have horrendous taste in movies. As a result, I have more fun watching them. And in my completely horrible opinion, The Kissing Booth is the most enjoyable movie of all time. The Kissing Booth has a score of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. I have never heard one positive word about the film (and I have heard lots of words about the film). The plot is garbage. The characters are toxic. There is not a single redeemable quality about it. Which is why I love it so much. When I was little, I was terrified of movies. I tried to watch Tinkerbell, but a huge bird tried to attack the fairies in the movie and I got too scared to continue. I tried to watch Cars, but I found it too unsettling. Until the age of ten, I had never seen a movie start to finish. This was extremely disruptive in my life since I went to countless birthday parties at which watching a movie was one of the main events. I was often isolated and alone in these circumstances, and I wanted nothing more than to get over my fear. Finally, when Frozen came out when I was ten years old, I watched my first movie. I watched it nearly a dozen times, and I started to watch more and more films. But this childhood fear still affects me. I am constantly told I “never had a childhood” since I did not watch any kid’s movies, and I will forever be playing catch-up with Disney references. Now, seven years later, I have completely gotten over my fear of movies. However, I still tend to gravitate towards lighthearted movies over dark and serious ones. I refuse to watch The Titanic because the idea of a three-hour-long film about a doomed romance seems like a waste of my tears and time. In addition, I refuse to watch horror movies and the scariest thing I’ve ever watched was Stranger Things. (I don’t find it scary, though!) Especially during a pandemic, I do not want to end a movie feeling worse than I did when I started it. So, lately, I’ve watched comedy after comedy, rom-com after rom-com, teen romance after teen romance. This is where The Kissing Booth comes in. The Kissing Booth is not special in any way. The film stars Elle Evans, who has a crush on the—very much subjectively—”extremely hot” Noah Flynn. The problem: Noah is the brother of Elle’s best friend Lee, and they have a pact to never date each other’s siblings. After they kiss at the school kissing booth, Noah and Elle start dating but must keep it a secret because Lee would be furious. For its genre, it’s mediocre, and that is generous. Truth be told, its portrayal of relationships in the movie is fairly problematic. But as long as the audience is mature enough to recognize the movie’s faults, I can let this slide. The plot is simply absurd, and the whole concept of a kissing booth is disgusting when you really think about it. (Students stand on a stage blindfolded while a random classmate kisses them). But worst of all are the characters. Elle is “not like other girls,” Noah is a toxic “bad boy,” and Lee is an overly possessive best friend. It is so atrociously bad that I can’t help but laugh. The Kissing Booth is the best comedy movie I have ever seen. Nothing makes me feel smarter than watching a dumb movie. I notice all of the flaws and the horrible decisions that each character makes. In contrast, when I watched Inception, I felt incredibly bored and overwhelmed with the amount of information thrown at me about time travel, alternate universes, and more. With The Kissing Booth, there is no substance. I spend the 1h 45m of the film overanalyzing Elle’s horrible relationships with Noah and Lee. There is so much there that by the end of the movie I feel like I could be qualified as a relationship counselor. Aside from my overanalyzing, The Kissing Booth does not challenge my brain. It does not make me reflect. It simply makes me laugh. And for entertainment, that is all I truly ask for.
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