'The Kissing Booth 2' Review: Joey King's Elle struggles after happy ending as distance separates her from Noah
'The Kissing Booth 2' kicks off with Elle Evans (Joey King) and Lee Flynn's (Joel Courtney) last first day as best friends return to final year high school but everything has changed! Elle has a boyfriend, who is Lee's hot brother Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi). Just that he has left for college. He is in Boston, studying at Harvard and Lee has a girlfriend. Starting a long-distance relationship has made Elle lonely and while she doesn't realize this, Lee does. In fact, Lee goes to the extent of letting Elle hang out with him all the time, including inviting herself to what would have otherwise been private dates with Rachel (Meganne Young), his girlfriend.
It is the little nuances that point out how much Lee lets Elle infringe on without batting an eyelid because she is his best friend. The fact, however, is that Elle is falling back to her old ways of hiding things for what she believes is Lee's betterment. The sequel is much better off in comparison to its predecessor, but that has got more to do with the tone of the film than anything. It begins as a light and breezy highschool romance and culminates into something dark as this young girl contemplates her relationships and life choices before stepping into adulthood.
From wanting to go to the same university with Lee -- UC Berkeley -- because their mothers became best friends in college to applying for back up schools in Boston because Noah wanted her to go to school with him; Elle is now conflicted about being pulled in two different directions. While being confused is not a bad thing, what is, is not being transparent with her best friend. Lee risks losing his girlfriend because of Elle, and she is completely oblivious to it. She tells him she needs to be a part of the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) competition because she needs the money for school. However, she doesn't tell him that this money was to fund her education if she went to a private college like Harvard. She is sure that Lee would be upset to learn that she didn't keep her promise.
It is not that Lee tells Elle everything. The things that he keeps private are about his relationship with Rachel. Elle, on the other hand, has shut Lee off from things that she is dealing with. Things that she could only share with friends. That's how Marco Pena (Taylor Perez) ends up entering Elle's life. Actually, he enters her life in the form of a thirst trap -- a video of him working out gets shown to Elle and she goes on to objectify him in every possible way and ends it by calling him a delicious "snack". However, when Lee wants Elle to give him some space, he suggests that she use Marco's help to take part in DDR because he breaks their record all the time and one tough day, Elle ends up confessing everything to Marco. She also has to deal with Chloe, who is this friend that Noah has met in college and Elle is too insecure about this new relationship that Noah has fumbled on. However, she, on the other hand, gets closer to Marco and at one point, this closeness even leads her to believe that she might be attracted to him.
In the end, 'The Kissing Booth 2' is about a girl learning the ropes of leading her life without letting her relationships influencing decisions in her life that she wouldn't have otherwise made. To like or even love someone doesn't mean letting that person be the center of your universe, just a part of it. So if Elle's plans were to go to Berkeley then she should be able to do that, without worrying about Noah because this relationship is fleeting and not written in stone. However, will she get to this secure space or if she will lose her boyfriend and best friend in one fell swoop is what keeps you from switching off!
'The Kissing Booth 2' released on July 24 and can be streamed on Netflix.