To all the YA romance books I've loved before, I don't love you as much as I love To All The Boys I've Loved Before. That may be the corniest sentence I've ever written but I don't care. Bring on the cheese! Bring on the sap! Bring on the TEEN LOVE! A new trailer for Netflix's adaptation of Jenny Han's delightful YA rom-com dropped yesterday and I've pretty much been squealing for 24 hours straight.
The best thing about To All The Boys I've Loved Before is that there's everything you could want in a YA romance - drama, angst, cute boys, all the soapy sh-t I mentioned above - but it's also so smart. On the page, Lara Jean Covey is an intelligent, enigmatic lead character. You root for her so hard. Lara Jean's inner monologue is funny, self-deprecating and heartbreaking. She FEELS. You can't help but FEEL what she feels. On screen, Lana Condor looks like she's going to deliver on the feels. She's the perfect Lara Jean.
After the first To All The Boys I've Loved Before teaser trailer was released, I don't even think I got through the entire clip before I downloaded the book. I then proceeded to read the trilogy twice in one weekend. Some of you are probably yelling at me that you BEEN knew about Jenny Han. You've been in love with Lara Jean for ages. Great. I have hopped on the bandwagon and I'm not getting off.
For those of you who are just discovering To All The Boys I've Loved Before, here's the synopsis from Netflix:
When her secret love letters somehow get mailed to each of her five crushes, Lara Jean finds her quiet high school existence turned upside down.
Adorable, right? Mortifying? Absolutely. When the teaser trailer dropped, Lainey wrote about how it means something that the adorable, quirky and mortified lead in a rom-com is an Asian girl. One day I hope we can stop needing to point out when a woman of colour is playing roles she hasn't in the past. For now, it's still significant because it is still so rare. Lara Jean Covey is the stylish, relatable and desired centre of a love story with multiple love interests. You are going to fall in love with Lara Jean while she falls in love because despite what pop culture has told us so far, Asian girls fall in love too.
There's a line in the trailer that sums up another reason why To All The Boys I've Loved Before is so special. It is said by Peter Kavinsky, played by Noah Centineo (he is 22-years-old so we're allowed to swoon). It happens after Peter reads Lara Jean's letter to him.
"I really appreciate it, but it's never going to happen... I think it's really cool that you think I have golden specs in my eyes."
The details in Lara Jean's letters, like Peter's "golden specs", are why they are so embarrassing. It's why they are so hilarious. I like that the film looks like it's going to keep in these details. My one beef with the movie based on this trailer is that the guys who play Peter and Josh look the same. When you look up both actors (Josh is played by Israel Broussard) their faces aren't *that* similar but they are both tall brunettes and in the trailer, I had a hard time keeping them straight. If you've read the books, you know that Josh and Peter are not at all similar in personality but are very integral to how this story plays out. Hopefully, their differences shine in the full film. Also, I DID NOT picture Margot as Janel Parrish aka Mona from Pretty Little Liars but I'm done nitpicking. It looks great. It's going to be GREAT.
Netflix is singlehandedly saving the rom-com (and letting women write and direct them) and I am forever indebted to them for that. I can only watch Set It Up again so many times. To All The Boys I've Loved Before comes out on August 17th, the same week as Crazy Rich Asians which I've already seen and LOVED. I plan to spend that week rotating between re-watching Crazy Rich Asians and streaming To All The Boys I've Loved Before over and over. May this new era of rom-coms never end.
Attached - Lana Condor at Comic-Con last week.
