Review: "The Kissing Booth 3"

In this lightweight third entry to the series, privileged teens spend their last summer before (Ivy League) college grappling with relationships and growing up.

The Kissing Booth 3 will provide some closure for fans of the previous films, especially in its "Six years later" epilogue. But there's not much by way of deeper character development, and the story's central conflict -- which college (and therefore brother) Elle will choose -- doesn't really provide much conflict at all. Nor do storylines about the boys' parents selling their beach house, Chloe's parents getting a divorce, Marco still holding a flame for Elle, or high school relationships coming to an end.

Molly Ringwald is sadly underused in this sequel, and disparate accents (including Australian Elordi's poking through as American Noah) are left unexplained. A montage of the teens' fulfillment of a bucket list of activities feels improbable, as does the extreme wealth on display.

Likewise, in a scene where Elle, already feeling down, drops a bunch of trash when a bag tears, Lee tries to cheer her up by explaining that according to his mother, there are only two things worth spending "a little extra" on -- trash bags and bacon.

The anecdote's lack of deeper meaning is reflective of the film as a whole.

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Read the full review at Common Sense Media.