Love, Simon (2018)
Director:
Greg Berlanti
Starring:
Nick Robinson
Jennifer Garner
Josh Duhamel
Katherine Langford
Alexandra Shipp
Jorge Lendeborg Jr.
Keiynan Lonsdale
Plot:
Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he’s gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.
Review:
This movie…oh my god. This is a new favorite. I was so not expecting the absolute sweetness and all around beauty of this movie. What in the world is happening that I have now found two high school romance movies that I love? The world has gone mad!
Simon, Nick Robinson, is a normal teenage boy. He has a core set of friends he’s very close with, his family loves and supports him and he loves and supports them, and he lives an average upper middle class, probably actually upper class, life. Except he’s got a secret, he’s gay. He’s told no one, even though he doesn’t believe any of the people that matter will care, it’s not something he wants to share. He’s afraid it will change how people think of him and that’s honestly so relatable and heartbreaking.
One of my favorite romance tropes is falling in love with an anonymous person through their letters and Love, Simon does this perfectly. It takes it a step further, though, and raises the stakes. Simon’s emails are discovered by another student who then blackmails him. I wanted to destroy the kid that was doing this and for once I could understand and empathize with the angsty teenage motivation behind awkward encounters.
Love, Simon is an amazing high school romantic comedy that I would highly recommend to anyone that loves romances. It’s sweet, fun, and fills me with all kinds of warm happy emotions.
5/5
Romance
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
Director:
Mark Waters
Starring:
Matthew McConaughey
Jennifer Garner
Emma Stone
Michael Douglas
Plot:
While attending his brother’s wedding, a serial womanizer is haunted by the ghosts of his past girlfriends.
Review:
This is the Christmas Story, only instead of learning that you shouldn’t be a scrooge the lesson is you shouldn’t be a man whore. Er, that love can be long lasting? Um, that even if something bad happens it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? Whichever.
Matthew McConaughey is a professional photographer who takes pictures of half-naked women and makes a killing doing it. He has no problem finding bed partners but has avoided love. On the eve of his brother’s wedding he is visited by three ghosts.
The first nearly drowns him in all the women he’s bedded while also showing him that he had in fact loved before and that his parents loved each other before they died.
The second shows him how much his brother loves him and that people he cares about think he’s a joke.
The third shows him the woman that he allowed to get away being happy with another man. She also shows him his grave with only his brother mourning.
He realizes that loves isn’t bad and that having a real partner in life is a good thing. He fixes everything that he’s ruined, and starts up a relationship with the woman he loves.
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is predictable, it doesn’t paint a nice picture of women, which is disappointing, but Jennifer Garner’s character isn’t bad.
2/5
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)
NETFLIX Movie
Director:
Susan Johnson
Starring:
Lana Condor
Noah Centineo
Janel Parish
Israel Broussard
Plot:
A teenage girl’s secret love letters are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life.
Review:
Wow, I was not expecting such a great romance from Netflix after the absolute stinkers they’ve given me recently.
Lara Jean, Lana Condor, doesn’t tell boys when she has a crush on them. She prefers to look on from afar and when the feelings are too much to write them a letter explaining her feelings. She never intends for those letters to be seen, though, she does address them. Naturally, those letters are sent by a somewhat well-meaning sister.
Most of the letters were years old and her feelings have moved on so she doesn’t have much issue explaining to the boys once they show up that she’s moved on. However, one of the letters is to her sister Margot, Janel Parish, recently dumped boyfriend, Israel Broussard. Her feelings for him are complicated. They’re best friends, she had a crush, but he was always in love with her sister. It was never even an option for her to try and pursue a relationship with him once her sister dumped him because her sister still, sort of, has feelings for him.
In an effort to keep him in the dark about her feelings she accosts another one of the recipients of her love letters. Peter, Noah Centineo, has just broken up with his long term girlfriend and was not looking for a relationship. However, he takes the opportunity to make his ex jealous and to help Lara Jean hide, by pretending to be her boyfriend.
They’re adorable, tons of chemistry, very realistic but still fun. It reminded me of watching Sixteen Candles, incidentally, one of the movies they talk about in the film. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was so great that I’ve actually looked into the book series it is based on. There are two more books, so my hope is that they make a sequel, but we’ll see. I hate teen angst with a passion but I loved this movie.
5/5
Prince and Me (2004)
Director:
Martha Coolidge
Starring:
Julia Stiles
Luke Mably
Ben Miller
Plot:
At college Paige meets Eddie, a fellow student from Denmark, whom she first dislikes but later accepts, likes, and loves; he proves to be Crown Prince Edvard. Paige follows him to Copenhagen, and he follows her back to school with a plan.
Review:
Paige, Julia Stiles, is a no nonsense, get shit done woman. She’s going to be a doctor and nothing can stand in her way. Edvard, Luke Mably, is a prince that has been given everything expect the one thing he wants, no responsibility. After viewing a commercial for Girls Gone Wild Wisconsin (I kid you not) he decides that he’s going to run to Wisconsin so that he can get easy college girls out of his system.
Almost immediately he runs out of money and has to get a job because his parents have cut him off. With work and school bearing down on him, naturally, that means he should forget about the coeds that might be willing to be a one night stand for an attractive man with a British accent, instead he puts his sights on Paige.
Opposites attract and they’re both beautiful and things are going smoothly, until the paparazzi find the prince and Paige discovers he’s first in line to the Denmark throne. Did I mention he was hiding that?
Anyway, after speaking with her mom she maxes out all of her credit cards, and her friend’s, to run to him in Denmark. She decides that she will be his queen and all of her dreams no longer matter because she has love.
Then things take an awesome turn. She realizes that she may love him and he loves her, but this isn’t her world. Sure she could make it work, but she still wants to be a doctor, she still wants to help people. So she tells him goodbye and heads back to college.
Edvard becomes king, but he decides that love is more important and that he can wait for Paige to get her degree and become a doctor. He runs back to America, tells her he’ll wait forever, and they kiss and three more movies are made about their love.
It was a cute movie, I really liked the twist at the end. It made the movie more than a simple romance.
3/5
No Reservations (2007)
Director:
Scott Hicks
Starring:
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Aaron Eckhart
Abigail Breslin
Plot:
The life of a top chef changes when she becomes the guardian of her young niece.
Review:
I am dieting. I am really enjoying watching stuff with food. This had food in it, though, not as much as I wanted.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is gorgeous and a food genius that has nothing else in her life except her sister and niece. Her sister dies and she’s left to raise her niece. The learning curve is steep and she only knows gourmet food.
Aaron Eckhart wants to learn how to cook from Catherine Zeta-Jones and obviously seduce her. He falls in love with her O face while feeding her food. He’s also a normal well-adjusted human being so is better at connecting with the niece.
They fall in love, open their own restaurant, and all live happily ever after.
3/5
Dynamite Review 