Review: To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)

“I’ve never been a girlfriend before. I hope I’m good at it.”
– Lara Jean

SYNOPSIS: Lara Jean and Peter have just taken their relationship from pretend to officially official when another recipient of one of her old love letters enters the picture. – via IMDB

So while we all know I loved the first, this one didn’t quite measure up (though sequels seldom do). That being said, it isn’t a bad movie at all, and is again easy watching with great characters and good banter. I just love watching all these characters and how they interact, and I enjoy the humour a lot as well.

In this one, John Ambrose writes Lara Jean a letter after receiving her love letter. This gets Lara Jean’s overactive imagination going into overdrive, cross questioning everything in her life, and playing on her insecurities of never having been a girlfriend before and not knowing what she is expected to do now with Peter since they are dating.

Peter, of course, is still like, this slice of perfection. No pressure for sex or for her to be anything she isn’t, and I love it. Centineo is still the perfect choice for this role, as he is insanely charming and super adorable. I absolutely love the chemistry between him and Lana Condor. They just click. They also work the tension and changing tides between them well, and I thought Jordan Fisher as John Ambrose was also smooth and charming, very flirtatious and all, though I was still Team Peter FOREVER.

I think To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You was quite good in exploring that teen anxiety of dating and not knowing the rules anymore, being young and out of your depth, etc. Are you caged? Are you supposed to be with this guy? All the confusion runs rampant in here. Yes, still predictable, but still such a fun watch. These movies are sweet and easy to watch, though the first reigns supreme. Yes, the pacing is weird in places if you think about it too much, but just don’t. Enjoy it for the cute, good looking fluff it is. Can’t wait for the last one!

September Blind Spot Review: Amélie (2001)

“So, my little Amélie, you don’t have bones of glass. You can take life’s knocks. If you let this chance pass, eventually, your heart will become as dry and brittle as my skeleton.”
– Raymond Dufayel

SYNOPSIS: Amélie is a shy waitress in a Montmartre café. After returning a long-lost childhood treasure to a former occupant of her apartment, and seeing the effect it has on him, she decides to set out on a mission to make others happy and in the meantime pursues a quirky guy who collects discarded photo booth pictures. – via IMDB

I have looked at this cassette and later DVD for so many years. Since it came out. It has always caught my eye, I have always wondered about it, and yet I have never gotten to it. This Blind Spot was the ideal place to ensure that I finally got to seeing it, and I am so glad that I did. Despite the fact that I am not a fan of French at all (putting it mildly), this movie is so touching, quirky, endearing and immensely entertaining. The humour is so juvenile and really has you giggling like a conspirator throughout, and I think that Audrey Tautou was absolutely perfectly cast to play the delightful Amélie. She was adorable and had just enough naivete working for her to pass it off as the real thing. I was always looking forward to seeing what the hell she would get up to and how she was going to pull it off. She was sweet and had a sense of justice going that was quite childlike but it worked, she had an imagination that was astounding, and her fascination with Nino was adorable – their little courtship was one of the better executed ones that I have ever watched. You were rooting for them the whole way through. They were both so weird and quirky that ultimately they would do nothing but complement each other. Mathieu Kassovitz was just amazing opposite Tautou. I liked the supporting cast, too, as they all contributed something to the story. I was a fan of Lucien, humble and a little dim-witted but full of love and excitement for life, and Raymond Dufayel was wonderful as Amélie’s encouraging friend who always had a few words to share, whether she found them useful or offensive. I had to laugh at Collignon and the suffering that he was (rightfully, in my opinion) put through for being such a douche. Amélie truly did some beautiful things for the people around her, and to see how all her schemes came to fruition was a thing of wonder (except you really have to wonder about the whole concept of Georgette and Joseph).