Review of To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018) by Jeni L — 11 Jan 2019

It's another pastel-filtered rom-com with witty and well-groomed teens, but it hits the emotional beats really well and Lana Condor is such an endearing freaking star (as are her counterparts in Anna Cathcart, John Corbett, and Noah Centineo) that director Susan Johnson's To All the Boys I've Loved Before becomes one of those movies you can't wait to re-visit again and again when in need of something that's both comfortable and dramatic without having any real consequence. Johnson creates a world you want to be a part of yourself and frames it all like a modern indie/hipster music video that will firmly plant it in the Instagram age so that it will stand to serve as ample nostalgia for teens two generations down the road; though I can't imagine how today will feel like simpler times for those that are yet to come, but inevitably...they will. To All the Boys I've Loved Before paints a picture of high school as I can only imagine we hope it to be rather than what the reality might look like for the majority-but hey, it's good to have aspirations.

Needless to say, I'm anxious to see if Covey will follow the same rule laid out by her mother for Margot (Mona!) or if she'll try and defy the odds. Bring on the sequel, Netflix!