Hey girl hey. And boy.
*don’t come at me for the title, it’s a cute film just not worth the hype in my opinion*
I’ve been wanting to make this post for a while now but as soon as I mentioned it briefly in my last post (two posts ago actually), everyone went crazy. Jk jk but still, you guys were so excited.ย So I’ve decided to finally stop procrastinating and give you all the tea on the movie, To All The Boys I Loved Before. For those of you who don’t know, this movie is about a sixteen-year-old girl called Lara Jean who keeps love letters to all the boys she’s ever loved and keeps them in a box. But then they get exposed to all her crushes and the film begins. If you haven’t watched the movie, you should probably watch it now because there will be spoilers. But without further ado, let’s get started.
Now let’s just say I didn’t exactly HATE the movie but I didn’t really like it either. And honestly, with everyone talking about how good it was, I was pretty disappointed once I got around to watching it. Before we get into my rant, I’d like to point out that I really loved how they had an Asian as the lead role. In Hollywood and film production, you almost never see people of a different race as lead roles even though North America is a pretty diverse country. So I really liked that aspect of the movie. I mean, the idea of the plot is great – it’s just not as dramatic as I expected.
First thing’s first, one thing I really hated was the involvement of Josh in the movie. I mean the whole thing kind of began with him and Lara’s biggest crush was Josh in the first place. There was no confrontation whatsoever. Just Josh always trying to talk but Lara shutting him out throughout the. entire. movie.ย ๐ซย He’s barely in any of the scenes and it would’ve been really nice if we had some kind of closure with the whole scenario. I mean yeah I think the whole Peter role in this is great but Josh was so confused throughout the whole thing and there could’ve been much more drama on his side. ๐ย I get the whole Lara and Peter want to be together but they both have someone from their side (believe me, this is every turkish drama ever ๐) but I just feel like Josh was just a shadow the whole time and tried to understand why he was losing everyone.
ย
There was one exception to my problem with Josh confrontations which is when Peter, Josh and Lara all have that argument with Margo involved at the end. And can I just say…that was the least dramatic thing I’ve seen ever? Yes, I get that it’s not a TV show and that it’s supposed to be realistic but really? There was no music at all, no tears and just lines being said. It was mainly a conflict between Lara and Peter but Josh just comes out of nowhere after like years of no interaction. ๐ย And okay fine, I don’t expect high quality dramatic conversations in a teenage movie but when Margo said “you’re in love with Josh?” I literally lost ittt.ย ๐
I mean come on, that HAD to be a bit emphasized since it’s like one of the main themes of the movie?! Even having Margo just stand there and everyone looking at her would have been better than “you’reinlovewithjosh?” and turning around.๐ย And plus, Margo’s the one that broke up with him so I don’t really get the whole betrayal. Plus plus, how is someone Lara’s age dating her older sister? Plus plus plus, WHY IS NO ONE TALKING TO JOSH ANYMORE? Okay I’m done with this but that scene literally triggered a bunch of rants.ย ๐
The character I mainly had a problem with was Lara Jean. I loved Chris’ role and the two sisters but I felt no connection to Lara at all throughout the movie. It was really great at the beginning but sort of started to fall off towards the actual conflict. I loved the narrations in between but once it stopped, it was pretty hard to see how she was actually feeling. I mean some facial expressions were nailed but I feel like this movie needed a lot more confrontation and better communication with other characters. I get that it was part of her character to shy out but I don’t remember connecting with like any of the scenes. You know that feeling when you finish a movie and you just feel great for like 2 seconds? I didn’t feel it at all through this. I feel like maybe it should’ve been a 5 part tv show with all 5 guys because again, the plot was great, I just didn’t see any character development clearly.
I know I sound like a huge film critique and that I’m just here for the tea ๐ย but although, it was a cute awkward film, I feel like it was missing a few things. That’s why I think it should’ve been a tv show. It doesn’t leave you with that feeling in your chest, does that make sense? ๐ย I don’t know – maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the one with high standards or judgement but when you come from watching very dramatic turkish dramas and watch a movie like this, it almost seems like a short film made by grade 7 students. ๐ย A pretty good one though.
All in all, To All The Boys I Loved Before did have its positives like the diversity, genuineness of guys even though that aspect is not so realistic *cough*where’smypeterkavinsky?*cough* ๐ย . I may not have connected so well with the main character and the plot but it was still a cute film – just not one I’d remember in a few years.ย ๐
I hope you all enjoyed this post – I can sense your fume from miles away but feel free to comment below what YOU think of this movie.ย ๐
- Did you watch it?
- Did you like it?
- Favourite part?
- Worst part?
- Hate me now?
(oh noย ๐)
I really don’t know why I was slacking this past week but I hope I get it together for the last week of October. I’ll see you soon.
Bayyyย ๐
I’ve never seen it, and I never really wanted to honestly because I find movies based on love/crushes/high school drama really boring…but girl, you’re such a talented film critic and I literally mean that ๐
Great posy!!
~Natalie
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Sameee like the whole high school cliches get really boring after a while. I’m more drawn to the movies when everyone’s in their 20s ๐ Aww thanks so much – I felt like I had huge standards because I’ve been watching turkish dramas since I was 6…oops. ๐ Neat commy!!
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I agree! I watched it because I got the book from willoughby book club and the movie got loads of hype but it was so underwhelming! I thought my posts on the movie was gunna be โoh it was so cute!!โ Instead it was a โ10 reasons the bookโs betterโ ๐
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Yass omg I thought a lot of people would kill me in the comments but it WAS underwhelming. I haven’t read the book but it probably would’ve been better. Thanks for reading! ๐
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I haven’t watched the movie but I read the book and it was DISAPPOINTING literally nothing that deep happened during the second half of the book and I thought it was really overrated. But that’s my opinion so don’t fight me for this. lol
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I haven’t read the book! ๐ I wanted to but I was like I’ll just watch the movie to see what the hype was about. I’ll read it some time and you should watch the movie and tell me what you think. ๐ One girl said the book was better but I guess I’ll have to read it and find out.
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I loved the movie but not as much as I loved the book. I understand and respect your views but well, we have to have our differences don’t we? And I get exactly what you are saying about Josh and Lara and how they never talked, it pissed me off too but in the books there was a proper scene where they talk through it so I was fine after that…
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Really? I haven’t read the book ๐ True and that’s okay! Ughh yes like Josh was so confused. THEY HAD CLOSURE IN THE BOOK? Okay I’m reading it. ๐
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You should! The books are cute and everything I needed to make me love it, you should also check out my post where I review the movie and then in the negatives I also state each major incident they don’t show! They had the time but they missed sooo much!
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what?! i loved it! it was such a cute and fun movie but i still have to read the book so i cant speak ahah x
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It was cute but it was missing something – I’m not sure what ๐ I haven’t read the book either so I’ll have to read and compare.
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I actually LOVED the movie and found Lara Jean to be adorable and relateable. (yes where IS my peter @?!?!) It’s okay though, i don’t hate you for not liking it haha everyone has their own preference. Wait is this turkish drama–intekam, about revenge? I think they translated it and played it on tv where I live! it’s about this girl with a box that had the infinity label on it, right? and she’s here for revenge on someone who killed her father?? It’s actually a copy of the American show “Revenge”–literally, man it’s called INTEKAM! Haha this comment is more about turkish dramas than it is about TATBILB, but, it is what it is. *shrugs*
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Oh well we have our own preferences ๐คท๐ Aw thanks I was scared to look at the comments for people hunting ME down ๐ No no! It’s called Tatli Intikam. Which is SWEET revenge ๐ It’s more of a comedy. But it gets a huge plot twist at the end. It’s about a girl whose husband leaves her on the wedding day. She believes it’s bad karma from the time she rejected this guy publicly in university. The two cross paths again and she begs him for forgiveness but he makes her work at his restaurant because she really hurt him and it’s funny watching her work ๐ They fall in love and idk it’s actually pretty interesting and not a huge cliche. Thanks so much for reading!
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haha omg ok i totally got the wrong turkish drama! it sounds cute tho.
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idk what to think about this movie๐ Like, I like it but then also I hate it with my whole heart๐. The ending was WAYYY too rushed for sureeee, but hopefully the second one is better!!
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LOLL true ๐๐ IKR legit everything happened in the last 15 minutes and it went way too fast. There’s a second one?! I wanna see what happens to that fifth model UN guy ๐
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Thats what the second ones about!!๐๐
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You and these Turkish dramas๐ KOREAN DRAMAS ARE BETTERRR๐
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Ugh yesterday I was talking about Turkish dramas with my friends and one of them was like no no Korean dramas are better and I’m like ๐ค is this Alexa undercover? She showed me a trailer of this drama and it was like this girl who can see the future in her dreams?! This kinda reminds me of a book I’m currently reading but idk ๐
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๐๐ it was definitely me. OMG what the show “While you were Sleeping”?? ITS SO GOODDDD . You need to watch it!!
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Omg dude I made plans with that girl to meet up today so I’ll see you there ๐
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I wasn’t aware of the hype around the film, I just watched it one day cause I saw it was new on Netflix. Now that I know about the hype, I think it might be a little overrated but still a good film. I loved how Lara Jean isn’t white, for once, and I like her character. As you said, I don’t really understand Josh. I don’t understand his role in the film cause I thought in the end they were gonna end up together but instead she just pushed him away all the time. But, Noah Centineo is pretty good looking so I’m not complaining. XD
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Yesss exactly!! Like it’s fine but just not THAT great you know? Yesss I agree with everything here ๐ฏ๐ฏ HAHAHA true ๐๐๐
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Okayyy the title girrl ๐ I FEEL LIKE I HAVE TO AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID. LITERALLY.
I read the trilogy of TATBILB that’s why this story is really really close to my heart. (uhm allow me to rant here ok ๐) When I knew that it turned into Motion Pictures, i freaked out girrrll like i had to watch it and i couldn’t waaiiiitttt . I swear i’ve never been more excited in my life like that ๐ so i watched the movie and by the end of it, i had no other reaction except for “the book was wayyy better than the movie” like FOR REAL. It only got 40% of my expectation, honestly. The cast was great & i love lara jean’s costume changes ๐ And I LOVE CHRIS TO DEATH ๐๐๐ and yasss give me a Peter K โค But their acting was kind of uhhh i don’t know, i was expecting something more than that. Tbh my imagination was better than the movie ๐ LOL and yes!! I agree with Josh being not involved in the story afterward. Like??? HE was the reason why everything branched out like that!! That’s what I disliked about the book too. Josh was left behind and no one ever talked to him and it’s really annoyinggggggg ๐ but yes, it’s a cute movie – I just wanted more drama, more emphasis on the lines like you said and all that. Sorry for the rant ๐ LOVED this post a lottt! Xxx
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GURL I GOT SO HYPED WHEN I SAW YOUR COMMENT! Aaah I wanted to read the book but was like ah well the movie came out anyways. I totally get what you mean though! YES YES YES!! Like idk maybe it’s my imagination and its high standards but something was missinggg! Ughhh yes poor Josh!! Loll gurl you can rant anytime – I completely agree with everything you said too! Thank you so muchhh โค
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You’re welcome!! โคโคโค
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I’ve seen the movie, and I actually enjoyed it. But now that you’ve give me all these points I’m just like YOU’RE RIGHT ๐
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Hahahhaha sorryyy ๐๐ I’m glad you enjoyed it but it just needed a bit more
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๐ Yeah you’re right
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