Sometimes you just need to up the cute.
Thank god for this movie. I loved the first one, and I love this one too. I’m far removed from high school, and cannot even relate to a massive public school, (Catholic all-girls school here), but this brings me back to all those good fuzzy feelings without any of the ‘oh god I hate this place’ feelings that I got from my actual high school.
Basically, Lana Condor is the perfect protagonist.
(Obviously the importance of having an Asian American as a lead in a rom com cannot be stated enough. I’m really not the person to go into that, and so many have written better essays about it but it’s so good and important and makes me so happy. I’m not Lara Jean, but man there were dozens of Lara Jeans in my high school and I know they would have loved having this movie when we were kids. Representation matters, natch!)
She is so relatable! She’s got insecurities and wit and history and intelligence. She’s perfect.
The sets are divine!
Like the first movie, Lara Jean’s room is what my high school dreams are made of. The addition of the old-folks home which is a mid-century modern, plush velvet dreamscape and the small scene in the aquarium, this movie is so visually gorgeous. There’s something exceptionally fun about this movie that just screams rom-com. It’s pretty! It’s perfectly teenage and jovial. I know color theory is a common theme throughout most cinematography (duh), but usually it blends into the background for me, not really permeating. This was a welcome change. It’s bright and spunky and just plain great.
Overall, this movie is cute and fun; not as good as the first, but that’s what happens with sequels. The stakes feel a lot lower than the first movie, and the ending felt abrupt to me, but I kind of don’t mind? It’s a second movie, hopefully with a third on the way, so it’s not obligated to have a high intensity pace. I loved it, that’s what you should glean from this. If you have ever been in the clutches of a high school crush, this is a movie for you.
Betsy the Gremlin 