Reviews

"PS I Still Love You" is a sub-par callback to 80’s cliches

Reporter Hayden Clevenger

Romance movies aren’t really my cup of tea, though I do enjoy them on occasion, and I went into P.S I Still Love You with an open mind and decent expectations from its prequel. However, this film manages to fall completely short and effectively disappoint fans of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, myself included. Among being awkward and inconsistent, it also was a complete rip-off of 80’s romance cliches! It seems to heavily borrow from Grease and Pretty in Pink in its plot and characters, causing it to feel redundant to those who have seen any teen romance movie. From the premise to the cliche characters, this film is a mirror image of John Hughes’ famous movie.

P.S. I Still Love You is the sequel to the Netflix original movie, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, meaning it had high expectations from the lighthearted fun of its predecessor. The film follows Lara Jean (Lana Condor), a sixteen-year-old girl with a dilemma; which mildly attractive male lead will she choose as her beau? The sweet, childhood friend, John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher), or the tall, popular jock, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo)? Lara Jean goes to a sweethearts dance, where she finally realizes which boy she’d rather date, and they have a happily ever after together. If this sounds familiar, congratulations! You’re among the many who felt this movie was a complete copy-and-paste of older romance movies.

Not only did it have an unoriginal plot, but also many cheesy scenes meant to be “artsy.” For example, the scene when Lara Jean is going through emotional turmoil with Ashe’s song “Moral of the Story” playing in the background is difficult to take seriously. The tracking shot makes Lara look like she’s floating, and she randomly begins to sing, something that completely breaks the melancholy mood. In fact, this scene has become a running gag for romance fans, due to how absolutely ridiculous and out-of-place it is. The film never repeats this music video-esque shot, making it stick out even more.

The film also had very unrealistic communication between the main characters, as it felt very forced, like it was trying to seem “hip.” It tries so hard to make all the characters seem quirky and cool that it ultimately feels awkward. The use of popular Gen-Z slang, like saying something “slaps,” feels completely unnatural. The communication felt very staged, with awkward silences happening often. P.S I Still Love You tries to push itself to be a “relatable” story, which ultimately causes it to fall short on quality.

However, there were definitely some good parts of the movie; the film as a whole was very pleasing to the eye, and the soundtrack was amazing. The colors were very pleasing and effectively portrayed the mood of the scene, such as the gorgeous "Star Ball" scene. Additionally, every song chosen for the soundtrack really pushed the tone, making every scene that much more impactful. The music gave the film a fun, springtime feeling that made this heavily cliched film much more enjoyable. All in all, the film wasn’t bad, it just felt like a rip-off of John Hughes’ Pretty in Pink that was made to be a way to monetize off of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

(3/5 stars)