The Kissing Booth (2018) * *

Directed by:  Vince Marcello

Starring:  Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Molly Ringwald

I am not the intended audience for The Kissing Booth.   That audience would likely enjoy the movie and the world it inhabits, where rich California kids' only major concerns are who they plan to take to the prom or how they'll set up a kissing booth for a school fair.   You would think arranging a kissing booth for a high school event would be a minefield of public relations nightmares for everyone involved, but apparently these folks are still thinking it's the 1980's. 

The Kissing Booth tells the story of two lifelong friends Elle (King) and Lee (Courtney), who are born in the same hospital at the same time and whose mothers are best friends.   They've shared everything together, and you would be forgiven if you figured these two would eventually stop being buds and becomes romantically entangled, but that is not the case.   Elle, instead, has had a crush on Lee's older brother Noah (Elordi), a tall, buff, brooding guy who doesn't speak much and doesn't say much when he does speak.  He likes to punch people too.  Lee is more interesting by default, so Elle should find herself another crush who isn't likely to be jailed on assault charges.

Dating Noah would go against "the rules" Lee and Elle set up when they were six, which includes the dreaded Rule 9, which is neither can date the other's relatives.    But Noah is apparently so irresistible that Elle breaks the arbitrary rule anyway and starts seeing him.    She feels Guilty about it though, because she has to sneak around Lee's back to see Noah.   This of course sets up the obligatory scenes of Lee's discovery of Elle and Noah's romance, Lee pouting, Elle upset, and then the reconciliation which feels pretty forced.   And Noah rides away for a few days on his motorcycle (the ultimate symbol of a brooding loner) to contemplate these events.

There isn't much about The Kissing Booth which isn't predictable, and by definition, most romantic comedies are formulaic.   In between all of the romance are some slapstick scenes where Elle wears a skirt far too short for school regulations, falls a lot, and even sustains a nasty cut which Lee immediately assumes was caused by Noah hitting her.   All of this is an ungainly fit for such lightweight material.   

Joey King, though, is likable and smart enough to stand out with a cookie cutter character in a cookie cutter movie.   Noah towers over her, but she holds her own.   She seems nice enough, and we'd like for her to be okay.   Aside from that, The Kissing Booth is standard young adult fare.   They'll like it, if anything, and enough did because Kissing Booth 2 was made.