Film

The Kissing Booth

A glossy Netflix teen rom-com where good-girl Elle falls for her best friend's smoldering, motorcycle-riding older brother, breaking the one rule that's kept their friendship intact for years. It's pure wish-fulfillment: bright colors, a chaotic best-friend pact, a love triangle played for maximum swoon rather than realism. Perfect for anyone who wants sugar, not substance, from their evening.

TMDb rating7.2

If you liked this

To All the Boys I've Loved Before2018

Same Netflix DNA, same summer-of-2018 crossover audience, but with a warmer heart and a genuinely charming lead in Lana Condor. The fake-dating premise delivers all the giddy tension without quite so much melodrama.

But If you came for shirtless motorcycle boys and reckless stakes, this is gentler and more grounded than that.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before poster

10 Things I Hate About You1999

The gold standard of teen rom-com structure — a bet, a bad boy, a soundtrack that still slaps. Heath Ledger serenading a bleacher full of students is genre perfection.

But Late-90s pacing and slang might feel dated if you want something shot and cut like a 2018 Netflix original.

10 Things I Hate About You poster

The DUFF2015no page yet

Sharper and funnier than most in the genre, with a heroine who actually has a personality outside of her crush. The high-school social hierarchy stuff lands with real bite.

But It leans more comedy than swoon — if you want pure romantic yearning, this spends more time on jokes.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

My So-Called Life1994

Both hinge on a good girl fixating on an unattainable, brooding boy while risking everything she has — but this one plays it as raw, everyday ache instead of glossy fantasy.

Nineteen episodes of aching, unglamorous teenage longing, with Claire Danes as Angela Chase obsessing over Jordan Catalano the way only a fifteen-year-old can. It's the same crush at the emotional bone, minus the gloss.

But It's slow, quiet, and unresolved by design — there's no fizzy montage, just real awkward silences and unfinished feelings.

My So-Called Life poster
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Easy A2010

Emma Stone at her most electric, narrating her own reputation spiraling out of control with wit sharp enough to cut glass. Funnier and smarter than the genre usually allows itself to be.

But It's about gossip and reputation more than romance — the love story is almost an afterthought here.

Easy A poster

She's All That1999

The makeover-bet premise that half of teen cinema has been remixing ever since, with Freddie Prinze Jr. at peak charm. Breezy, silly, endlessly quotable.

But The central bet is genuinely a little gross by today's standards, and the film doesn't fully reckon with that.

She's All That poster

Sierra Burgess Is a Loser2018

Another Netflix teen romance from the same era, with a Cyrano twist and a lead who isn't conventionally 'hot girl next door.' Sweet, a little messy, big feelings.

But The central deception is uncomfortable and never gets the reckoning some viewers will want it to.

Sierra Burgess Is a Loser poster

A Cinderella Story2004no page yet

Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray doing the anonymous-online-romance fairy tale with total sincerity. Cheesy in exactly the way that makes it endlessly rewatchable.

But It's aggressively earnest — if you want any irony or edge, this plays everything completely straight.

Never Been Kissed1999

Drew Barrymore going undercover as a high schooler is a delightfully weird premise executed with real charm and an ending that still gets people every time.

But An adult reporter pursuing a teacher's attention hits differently now than it did in 1999.

Never Been Kissed poster

The Half of It2020

A quieter, more literary spin on the love-triangle formula — Cyrano de Bergerac by way of a small lakeside town, with a wry, introspective heroine.

But It trades glossy melodrama for something slower and more melancholic; don't expect big romantic fireworks.

The Half of It poster

Splendor in the Grass1961

Same engine — first love with the 'wrong' boy across a social divide — but stripped of comedy and shown as something that can genuinely ruin a life.

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in a devastating classic about teenage desire crushed by class and convention — the kind of forbidden first love that actually leaves scars.

But This is a genuine tragedy, not a rom-com — expect heartbreak and real consequences, not a happy summer ending.

Splendor in the Grass poster

Wet Hot American Summer2001no page yet

It's the same summer-romance machinery — secret crushes, best-friend drama, melodramatic stakes — but blown up into satire, so you can laugh at the tropes you just enjoyed unironically.

A gleefully unhinged parody of every summer-romance trope you just watched played straight — camp counselors, forbidden crushes, overwrought declarations of love, all turned up to absurd degrees.

But It's deadpan, weird, and deliberately dumb — if you want sincerity, this will actively mock it.

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