For Netflix maniacs, Noah Centineo has become a new mood. With films such as SPF 18, Swiped, The Perfect Date, the actor has become the new heartthrobs for teenagers. His presence on the small screen has become the cupid approved Valentine's Day watch. His appearance at PS: To All The Boys I Still Love You, (which is a sequel of To All the Boys I've Loved Before) had been one of the most awaited Netflix films.
The two films mentioned above have managed to give major relationship goals with characters such as Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky. For various reasons we loved Lara Jean Covey; she has been the most honest teenager we have had in centuries. She has deep significant, non-physical moments with her crushes and secretly conveys her feelings in unsent letters.
Even when she had a huge crush on her sister's boyfriend she maintained the sister code and kept her distance, before her youngest sibling Kitty decided to screw up her life, with the right intention in her heart. Lara Jean is the girl, we wish who would have been introduced in the 90s. She is intelligent, smart, and secretly insecure about her boyfriend Peter Kavinsky being the most famous, handsome boy in high school. As much as she enjoys his company she lives with this hidden insecurity, a secret competition of not being able to live up to or do better than Gena. You almost want to scream some sense into Lara Jean only to remember that she is just a teenager who is a little bit more mature than the rest of the people in her crowd, but that does not make her any less of a teenager in some aspects.
It takes Lara Jean a few moments with John Ambrose McClaren to realise that she is eternally (n the teenage sense) in love with Peter Kavinsky despite his various flaws.
PS To All The Boys: I Still Love You is one of the bravest teenage films centred around a young teenager who is not afraid to confront her insecurities. On the surface PS: To All The Boys: I Still Love You may appear as a general, romantic-comedy, but the film had been deeper than that.
Till now, we loved Lara Jean for her style and softness. She is also a young girl who has the capability to take strong decision usually expected from adults. When bitter acrimony started in her relationship she stopped blaming her boyfriend and instead confronted her own insecurities. Her former best friend and Peter's former girlfriend Gena.
Gena and Lara Jean (former best friends turned enemies) confront each other in a treehouse where they had once promised to be friends forever; before they both became angry teenagers. Lara Jean amidst all her insecurities had admitted to herself that one of the reasons for the fallout between Peter and her was not Peter or John but her insecurities about Gen, Peter's first girlfriend.
Peter, who is otherwise lovable keeps secrets to protect Lara Jean but ends up messing his relationship with Lara mainly because that's what teenagers do. They tell each other white lies and then forget to remember the lies.
Along with the romantic lives of Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky, Lara Jean and John Ambrose, the writers also give us a glimpse of adult relationships through the widower father of the Covey girls, Dr Covey and the recently divorced Mrs Rothschild. (If the makers ever decide to make another sequel, we would love to watch a story about the real Rothschild, who are the most influential people in the world.)
It took Emilija Baranac (who played the role of Gena) only a few moments to make us see through the good and bad side of her character. While throughout the film she acts like an angry ex-girlfriend, it took her only five minutes to win our hearts, when she revealed her softer side, the young innocent Gen who cries her heart out when her parents get separated. Who hides the friendship band with Lara Jean and covers up her insecurities with ego.
Lara does not set our expectations high with her style and standard. She simultaneously manages to remain vulnerable and mature and that's why she remains the messy but perfect role model for young teenagers.
