Movie Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Always and Forever

This high school romance story doesn’t give all of us butterflies

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Sofia Mang, Staff Writer

The “To All The Boys” trilogy ended with the last movie “Always and Forever”, which premiered on Feb. 12. Originally a book series, these romantic-comedies have been a hit with younger teenage girls but looked down upon by other demographics. Older teenagers see it as corny and cheesy, even though they may have enjoyed the earlier two movies that came out when they were younger.

With many teenage rom-coms, a huge hate train forms around them, as seen in this case as well as with “The Kissing Booth”, another teenage Netflix movie series. While I agree that there are multiple corny and cringe-worthy plotlines that made some parts of “Always and Forever” hard to watch, it had an overall resonating message for many of today’s teenagers: the ups and downs of planning your life around something seemingly certain that ends up falling through and, as a result, being forced to live life as you go. 

This movie is about the life of Lara Jean Song-Covey, a biracial teen with a family from the US and South Korea, as she endures her senior year.  Lara Jean’s high school love life evolves throughout the series, and in senior year, both her boyfriend, Peter Kavinsky, and her plan to go to the same college together—Stanford University. However, everything fails when Lara Jean is ultimately rejected. This causes a shift in her relationship with Peter and creates conflict within her family as well. Romance, drama, and feel-good family moments are all displayed through the movie, although some may not have been done as well as others. 

Being out of touch with teenagers but still attempting to relate to them is a big mistake that multiple Netflix original movies and shows constantly make. That’s the main reason why so many corny scenes are made, as there are not enough older teenagers that watch the movie and review it. Instead, they stray as far away as possible from those teens and leave it to the “tweens”, who eat the content up. 

If executed a little better, it would have been an easily relatable movie for many current seniors, in a relationship or not. Lara Jean is afraid of change, and doesn’t want to let go of anything, but realizes that she needs to in order to go to college and move forward in life. It also teaches many that remaining open-minded is important as it is unnecessary to consciously stick with a certain plan that may only keep you stuck in that spot for life.

Something that made this movie better for some viewers was the fact that the main character was Asian American and few romantic comedies have Asian leads. This could also be a main advertisement point that draws people to watch the movie. In this movie, Lara Jean tunes in more with Korean culture, something not as highlighted in the previous movies. The screenwriters started the movie off with a brilliant montage of her trip to Seoul, South Korea, and while many Asians may think the movie is still “too white”, the attempt to have a small touch of Korean culture is still there.   

Overall, the reception of this movie is incredibly up to the viewer. For some, it could be amazing, but for others, it could be the worst movie they’ve ever seen. Personally, this movie gave me a bit of nostalgia and the space to enjoy it as a whole because of the good memories I associate with the series as a whole. Some parts were incredibly hard to watch though, due to secondhand embarrassment, like Lara Jean refusing to tell Peter about not getting into Stanford. But in the end, those feel-good moments redeem the movie and make it watchable—maybe even enjoyable—for some.