By Nellie Shih ’19, A&E Editor

Netflix’s newest original romcom, The Kissing Booth, follows Elle Evans (played by Joey King from Ramona and Beezus) during her junior year of high school. Elle and her best friend, Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney), decide to run a kissing booth for their school’s Spring Carnival, and the two are determined to convince Lee’s older brother, Noah (Jacob Elordi), to participate. Evidently, things get out of hand, and Elle’s life is turned upside down.

Before I get into the actual review of the movie, there’s a few things you should know about me as a movie-goer: first, I don’t know what my favorite genre of movie is, but romantic comedies are definitely not it. And second, I didn’t choose to watch this movie myself—I agreed to watch it with my friends because we discovered Phineas and Ferb is no longer on Netflix.

“What is the worst movie you’ve ever paid to see?” was trending on Twitter recently.  I would answer with The Kissing Booth, but I didn’t actually pay to see it, and I’m honestly relieved I didn’t waste $10 on the most cliché movie I’ve ever seen. The film does something extraordinary in the sense that it manages to squeeze every single cliché in a romcom you can think of, from kissing in the rain, to a bad boy who rides a motorcycle, to the quote “Don’t you dare [do something that’s really cliché] because that would be the most cliché thing ever.”

According to IMDB, the film is based on a book of the same name by Beth Reekles. Reekles began publishing her story online on Wattpad when she was fifteen before it got picked up by a publisher. This may explain some of the outrageous dialogue in the film. My favorite line from the film comes from when Elle approaches Noah to ask him to do the kissing booth. The girl Noah was with at the time is outraged that Elle has diverted Noah’s attention, and she angrily tells Elle the Easy Bake Oven is downstairs. This line brings a few questions to mind: Do Easy Bake Ovens still exist? Why is the Easy Bake Oven relevant in this situation? Is this something someone would actually say? Why am I laughing so hard at this line?

Holding strong with an outstanding 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Kissing Booth has received some insightful reviews:

“In another film, the sentiment would be a romantic one. In The Kissing Booth, it feels like a cage.” –Kate Erbland of indieWire. Rating: D.

“The Kissing Booth is not a good movie.” –Meghan O’Keefe.

The Kissing Booth was fun to watch because of how easy it was to make fun of and laugh at, but I hated it. Perhaps these critics and I have missed the point of the movie entirely by trying to take it seriously. In that case, if you love romcoms and want to watch something cheesy and cute, I would recommend Love, Simon.