#i love diversity in films so i always get really annoyed w/ myself when that conservative right wing childhood comes through <3< /div>
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I just finished watching The Amazing Maurice (2022) and it made me want to go back and finish watching The Hogfather. It's been 2 years since I saw the first half,, bro I have the fattest girl crush on Susan if that isn't enough motivation to finish HF idk what is
#discworld#terry pratchett#amazing maurice threw me for a min because Keith is animated as Indian ethnicity in a british film#then i remembered#im an idiot#this is the discworld#its TERRY FRICKIN PRATCHETT#of COURSE there's ethnic diversity!!#i love diversity in films so i always get really annoyed w/ myself when that conservative right wing childhood comes through <3
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âalways and forever, lara jeanâ: a bungled mess of my thoughts while watching the movie
Alright, cards on the table: I never finished reading the book. I got bored a couple of pages in, so I just read up the summary on Wikipedia and called it a day.
Not gonna lie, I expected better from the movies. I loved the first movie; it was cute, it was fun, it hit all the right places. The second movie was⊠eh. Jordan Fisher is cute, so thatâs a plus.
And then we got the third movie; the final in the To All the Boys Iâve Loved Before trilogy.
And it was somehow even worse.
Maybe Iâm exaggerating. Despite its shortcomings in the plot and character development-related departments (the fact that Lara Jean wrote addresses for letters she never meant to send is something that will bother me on my deathbed), the movies have their merits. Theyâre cutesy and charming and enjoyable, overall; movie-LJ is sweet and unashamedly a girly-girl, which is a refreshing change from the #NotLikeOtherGirls, pick-me girls and bruh girls we had in loads of other YA movies growing up. Peterâs pretty cute, too; heâs not a possessive freak like so many other love interests (The Kissing Booth, After, Anna and the French Kiss), and his and Lara Jeanâs dynamic is cute, too. Not to mention- we finally have an Asian lead whose Asian-ness isnât the whole focus of the story!
Again, maybe Iâm being extra with all this. The series is, at its core, solely for entertainment purposes. Not every piece of media has to have an underlying message and you shouldnât need to read between every goddamn line to find something worthy of enjoying. Theyâre certainly helpful for whiling away a couple of hours; perfect for bingeing with a pint of ice cream in hand, and all of this is in good fun.
Also, it goes without saying, but: spoilers ahead.
The film beings with Lara Jean scribbling a postcard to Peter while sheâs in Korea with her family. The inclusion of that little snapshot of Asian culture made me so happy- seriously, fuck everyone who says diversity in media doesnât matter. Iâm not even Korean, and I was overjoyed at seeing a couple of scenes just from the same continent Iâm on. The K-pop music in the background was a fun touch, too (although all Korean music isnât K-pop, but thatâs a rant for another day).
(Also: Blackpink has so many more suitable songs than Pretty Savage that go with the theme of the movies. Kill This Love in the second movie while Lara Jean is getting ready to go to her boyfriendâs match is bad enough- theyâre supposed to be in love in that scene, goddammit.)
One thing that bothered me throughout the movies is how obviously non-Korean Lara Jean and Margot look. Itâs like whoever chose the cast went for any random Asian- Lanaâs Vietnamese and Janel Parrish is half-Chinese, and itâs so obvious. You seriously couldnât find two Korean-Americans who even vaguely resembled each other so they could pass for sisters? The actresses do a stunning job and I donât want to shit on them, but I just wish they didnât go with the âall Asians look the same, whatâs the difference?â mindset.
Also, a nitpicky thing Iâve noticed in movies with characters who read a lot: no one holds their books up while theyâre reading. Your arms start to cramp, which is why you keep your book in your lap while youâre reading, or you rest on your belly and hold the book in front of you. My spine and shoulders didnât suffer years of torture as a chronic reader for you to include characters who hold their books up while reading.
A major gripe I have with Always and Forever, Lara Jean is how the characters are almost jarringly out of character- not from the books, but from the two previous movies, too. Lara Jean didnât have much of a character to begin with, so I canât say much about her (she dissed Oasis at one point; itâs okay for me to be mean to her), but the rest of them are either caricatures of themselves or just totally different people.
Movie Peter >>> Book Peter. Heâs almost too perfect (except for the fact that he unironically loves The Fast and the Furious, which⊠ew), almost too much of the ideal boyfriend. Not that my perpetually single arse would know. How do boyfriends even work? I wouldnât know the first thing to do with one; how often should you feed it? Do you need to take it on walks?
(In the notes Iâve written towards the end of the film, Iâve complained about Peter being immature and making Lara Jean feel bad about following her dream to go to NYU. He confuses me.)
Not to mention how distractingly adorable Noah Centineo is from some angles and under certain lighting conditions (other times, he reminds me of the human version of Shrek and that bothered me). King of weird Tweets and Instagram captions though he may be, heâs got a really nice smile, and his gravelly voice is both parts sexy and disturbing.
But I digress.
Iâll never forgive the directors for what they did to Kitty and Chris- two of my favorite characters, from both the books and the movies. Kittyâs annoying to the point of being borderline unlikeable- gone is the occasionally snarky comic relief we all came to love; in her place is an annoying brat whose every line comes out forced. Also, making soap is fun; fuck you, Kitty.
Chris is essentially Dixie DâAmelioâs character from that TikToker Greyâs Anatomy ripoff; the main character in One Direction fanfiction from 2012 who doesnât want to go to the concert but her best friend gets a ticket for her so she canât bail but Harry Styles sees her in the crowd and falls in love at first sight and 50k of mutual pining and misunderstandings late, they get together. Sheâs cynical and snarky and hates capitalism and consumerism and prom (because of course she does), but secretly, sheâs into it (because of course she is). My guess is that sheâs there to appease all the arseholes (including myself) who accused the characters of being too one-dimensional, but it seems too out of place in a movie that doesnât have much plot to begin with.
I really, really hate how Lucas was done dirty- throughout every single movie. Of course, itâs Lara Jeanâs story so not every side character has to be fully fleshed out- but youâd think three. entire. movies. would be enough to give Lucas a bigger role than the GBF and the token black guy for the diversity brownie points. Every single time Lucas shows up, itâs to push Lara Jean and Peterâs story forward. I wouldâve liked to see a romance for him pushed forward instead one for Chris- especially because he says, at one point in a previous movie, that itâs hard to find other gay boys, so it wouldâve been sweet to see him find love- and Chrisâs character arc couldâve been focused on reconciling with Genevieve. Instead, we see the OG Reggie from Riverdale be the one to show Chris the bright side of monogamy, and Lucas gets a date to prom as an afterthought (another darkskin black dude, so no one thinks the film is racist).
Genevieveâs character in this movie gives me whiplash. Look, Iâm all for girls supporting girls- healthy female relationships are something way too many YA movies lack- but she goes from bitch queen extraordinaire to friendly the moment the next scene calls for it. Her character isnât consistent. A redemption arc should be executed cleanly and believably; you canât have a character be a total prick one moment and then suddenly be, âHey, if you get into NYU, let me know,â the next.
And Genevieveâs still an arsehole to Chris; at one point, in NYC, while theyâre at the NYU campus grounds (I knew that Lara Jean was going to go to NYU the moment she saw all the banners; I fucking called it), Genevieve tells Chris, âUniversity is for people who actually have a future,â and I recoiled. Iâm not the nicest of people and yet that was going too far. Chris doesnât hesitate to shoot back a, âYou peaked in high school,â, but still. Y i k e s. You canât convince me someoneâs turned over a new leaf when they say something like that.
Lara Jeanâs dad (forgot his name; gonna call him Dr. Covey) is as unremarkable as ever, and his new wife (forgot her name, too⊠Trisha? Trina? Eh, something like that) is⊠unsettling. I mean, I get that theyâre all loved up and twitterpatted, but thereâs something about all the smiling theyâve got going on that chills me to the bone.
Also, Trisha/Trina kinda looks like TikTokâs ThatVeganTeacher and it bothers me.
Another huge problem with this movie even being made is that the series never had enough plot to continue onto a trilogy. Lara Jeanâs letters are what the plots of the first and second movies revolve around; the third only mentions them in passing. The final love letter from Peter was a cute callback, but thereâs a massive continuity issue with the first two movies and this last one- both character and plot-wise.
Maybe Iâm not articulating this clearly enough, so Iâll use an example: take Harry Potter, for example. Harryâs main goal throughout the series is defeating Voldemort. And it takes all seven books for him to get there, to finally achieve this.
Lara Jeanâs goal in the first movie changes midway; from keeping up the façade with Peter so she can avoid the crap with the rest of the letters getting out, to making her fake relationship real. It forms a bridge with the second movie; the letter that went out to John Ambrose, and her dithering between Peter and perfection (Iâm not sorry). But what does the third movie have to do with any of this?
There were way too many music montages. You couldnât go five minutes without a random pop song playing in the background, and it was annoying as hell. Donât Look Back in Anger was w a s t e d on this stupid film. The artsy scenery shots were even worse- no, I donât give a fuck about the New York skyline or a birdâs eye view of whatever vehicle Lara Jean is in. A few shots of Seoul wouldâve sufficed; the rest was overkill. This movie is way too damn long already (almost 2 entire hours!!!); cut out a couple of those. No one cares.
I thought theyâd pull the whole Aladdin trope with character-A-keeps-trying-to-tell-character-B-the-truth-about-a-lie-B-believes-in-about-A-but-B-keeps-interrupting, but Lara Jean (typing her name out is annoying, why couldnât she have a single name, like both of her sisters?) comes clean earlier than I expected. Peterâs reaction about LJ not getting into Stanford is⊠uncharacteristically mature? No âWhy did you lie to me?â, no accusations, not an ounce of betrayal. Which I did not expect from a guy whoâs a little bitch for the greater part of book one (I really donât like Book Peter, in case you couldnât tell). I know fuck-all about book threeâs Peter, so I canât tell if he really did adopt this mature, well-adjusted persona, or the movie did it to make Peter seem like less of a dick (like they did it with the sextape-that-wasnât-a-sextape in the first installment).
On a sidenote, how do these main characters in YA books get into really good colleges with zero to no visible effort? These arseholes fuck around for the entirety of the story and have way too much going on to actually do schoolwork, but they waltz into Ivy Leagues at the end. And apparently, Iâm not the only one bothered by this.
Thereâs something to be said about how the movies donât really sexualize minors (characters who are minors, to be fair. None of the MCs look anything like teenagers), though. Itâs almost weird to see them not getting drunk and partying and having sex all the time. Maybe thatâs why Lara Jean trying to get her hand on Peterâs dick felt so stilted and awkward (I cringed so hard when she kept trying to touch him and he kept pushing her hand away, holy shit).
And the kissing. Itâs to be expected from a romance film, but there was so. Much. Kissing.
The amount of product placements (⊠actually, I could count only two: Apple and a pair of Beats headphones Lara Jean puts on at one point, but the movie shoved so many iPhones in my face that Iâm obligated to exaggerate) wouldâve made anti-capitalist Chris mad.
Iâm guessing this all takes place in a parallel universe, sans the coronavirus. Still, being in quarantine this past year and being socially awkward for every other one, it was agonizing seeing everyone so close together in NYC. When Peter kissed the ball (lol) (I have the sense of humor of a straight boy in middle school, donât judge me) when him and Lara Jean go bowling, I had a visceral reaction. And what are the odds of Peter meeting his estranged dad at the very same bowling alley?
Speaking of Peterâs daddy issues (Iâve written âHardin but dilutedâ in my notes; I watched this movie at, like, 1 AM; Iâm not entirely sure what was going through my head at that point)- I hated how they guilt-tripped Peter into giving his father another chance. In the wise words of Hannah Montana, everybody makes mistakes- but leaving your wife and two kids for another woman is pretty far from a little oopsie on Mr. Kavinskyâs part. I donât blame Peter for hating him, and Iâm not in a place to judge whether Mr. Kavinsky (does he get a first name?) should be forgiven or not, but I feel like they let him off too easy and made Peter seem like a misunderstood teenager with anger issues for not accepting Mr. Kavinskyâs (crappy) apology at once.
And it adds nothing to the story at all; Mr. Kavinsky peaces out after having one (01) coffee with his firstborn, and heâs never seen again. If youâre going to introduce a subplot, make it tie into the main storyline- the very least you could do is make it an important enough part of the story to have more than 10 minutes of the run time. It makes no sense as to why theyâd bring up Peterâs dad in this last film, when heâs already gone through two perfectly fine. I guess it was a âtying everything upâ part⊠even though no one cared.
Lara Jeanâs handwriting is surprisingly ugly for someone whoâs written that many love letters. And her styling took a definite nosedive; her outfits in the first movie were so effing cute, but now theyâre just⊠meh.
There are so many conversations and lines that the writers mustâve thought sounded good enough for someone to type out the quote in curly font and slap it on a screenshot from the movie to post on Instagram, but when it comes to the actual delivery, they just sounded⊠weird.
Peter says one time near the beginning of the film, âYou know what Iâm looking forward to the most in college? Never having to say goodnight,â because he expects him and Lara Jean to get into the same college.
But I guess the word they shouldâve used was âgood-byeâ, because this just makes him sound stupid.
At one point, Lara Jean asks Kitty how much Kittyâs gonna miss her when she goes off to college, and Kitty says, âA four.â Later on, she confesses, âIâm gonna miss you a twelve, Lara Jean,â and all I could think was, âBut weâre endgame, Archie!â
(In hindsight, I probably shouldnât let people know Iâve watched Riverdale; it lessons my credibility.)
Still, there remains some good to be found: all the baked goods looked very delicious and made me crave chocolate chip cookies. Peter wearing the socks Lara Jean gifted him at the beginning of the movie was a cute gesture, and Lara Jean giving Peter her teal hatbox? The one she kept her love letters in? Was so? Cute? Help?
And hey, itâs a clichĂ© thatâs been done to death, but Iâm always a sucker for that part in movies where the girl walks down the stairs in a pretty dress with her hand on the banister and the boy turns around and his mouth falls open and all he can say is, âWow,â- and this film did not disappoint! Not to mention how cute both Lara Jeanâs and Chrisâs prom dresses were.
Dr. Covey and Trisha/Trinaâs wedding was cute, too- I struggled to decide whether Kitty wearing a necklace that says âfeministâ and a tux is a bit too on-the-nose, but Iâve decided that itâs nothing to get my knickers all in a twist about (for clarification: itâs not the necklace or the crossdressing that made me debate this; I just wish they didnât make a big deal out of it- I wish they didnât have Kitty and Lara Jean get into an argument about her not wearing a dress, if that makes sense?).
And the final letter- the one from Peter to Lara Jean- I ate that shit up; it was so, so, so cute.
In conclusion (why is it so easy for me to crank out 3k about my thoughts on a Netflix movie and yet when it comes to English Lit. at school, Iâd stare at a blank sheet of foolscap for ages?), did I enjoy the movie? Not really. There were parts of it that I liked, but it was overall too boring and I kept wishing Iâd watched the new SKZ Code episode instead every few minutes.
But that doesnât mean that it was bad. I kinda feel a little sad, actually, now that Lara Jean and Peterâs story has come to a close; To All the Boys Iâve Loved Before, the first movie, is one of my favorites, and bitch though I might about them, the kinda grew on me⊠like an innocent plant, at first, but then like a fungus. Not a parasitic fungus, just not mutualistic, either⊠kind of like a commensal.
Maybe I should stop with the biology similes.
#to all the boys ive loved before movie#to all the boys netflix#to all the boys ps i still love you#to all the boys i've loved before#to all the boys always and forever#Jenny Han#lara jean covey#peter kavinsky#asian#books#book review#film#film review#always and forever#lana condor#noah centineo#jordan fisher#john ambrose mcclaren#margot covey#kitty covey#netflix#chicklit#chick flick#romance#YA#young adult#teen fiction
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