Photo courtesy of IMDB.com

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, based on the book by Jenny Han was released to Netflix on August 17. Talks of a second movie based upon the sequel, P.S. I Still Love You, is rumored to release sometime in late 2019.

Summer 2018 was a great season for Netflix. A variety of hit new movies and shows were released and ready to be binged. Some of the most talked about movies released were The Kissing Booth and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.  Many Netflix users have been and still are split over which teen-romance movie was the superior of the summer.

The Kissing Booth,, initially released to Netflix on May 11, is centered around Elle Evans, a socially awkward teen who happens to accidentally fall in love with her best friend’s older brother. She and Noah have to figure out a way to continue to see each other without his little brother and her best friend, Lee, finding out in order to spare his feelings.  

“Personally, I thought The Kissing Booth was better for summer because it was set in California and I feel like that was just a more summery area. Also Joey King is from ‘Ramona and Beezus’ so I really liked her,” junior Donya Hosseini said.

The rom-com was one of the most talked about movies for most of the summer, that is, until To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was released on August 17.  Starring Lara Condor as Lara Jean Covey and Noah Centineo as Peter Kavinsky, the movie has so far received a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to that of The Kissing Booth which only has a 13 percent rating.   

The storyline follows Lara Jean, who has written five private letters to the boys on whom she has had the most intense crushes of her life. Somehow, the letters get sent and, in order to avoid her sister’s ex-boyfriend from thinking that she is in love with him, Lara must pretend to date jock Peter Kavinsky, with whom she eventually falls in love.“[I liked] To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before because it was more relevant and relatable on some topics throughout the movie and representation of asians in the movie industry,” senior Kait Noveras said.

One of the most appealing aspects of the movie is the Asian representation which had previously been rare in teen movies, making it a rare occurrence.

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was better because it was a lot less predictable. There was also Asian representation and there isn’t a lot of that on Netflix,” senior Lizzy Sidelnikov said.  

Summer 2018 may have gone by in two seconds, but Netflix sure made it fun. Whether or not the debate over which teen rom-com was the best of the summer ever gets resolved, both movies were extremely popular and will be sure to remind viewers of the summer.