If you haven't watched The Kissing Booth on Netflix yet, then run, don't walk to your nearest streaming device and queue up this modern masterpiece of teen melodrama immediately. OK, now that you've seen it, you probably have a lot of questions, like is the actor who plays Noah the tallest man on the planet? Why am I obsessed with this weird movie? And who is that random bad guy who appears only to make trouble before slinking back into the shadows of the world's largest high school beach party? If that last question is your most pressing one, then you're in luck, because the actor who plays Warren in The Kissing Booth is Byron Langley. Langley is a 24-year-old actor, model, and YouTuber. He even has his own channel, where he filmed a vlog of himself reacting to his role in The Kissing Booth, so that's definitely something you need to check out: The first thing you may notice is that while his character is less than charming, the actor not at all Warren-like. At the moment, he's not even rocking the shaggy hair of his bro character. In addition to vlogging, Langley also shares videos of original songs, and he's active on Twitter and Instagram. The Kissing Booth aside, Langley's list of credits is fairly short, but if you loved the private school setting of the Netflix film, then the actor is in a trilogy of movies you need to see. From 2010-2014, the actor starred in a series of films called Spud. The movies follow the adventures of a group of boys at an elite boarding school in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, during the early '90s. Langley, second from bottom left on the poster above, stars as Simon Brown, a sporty kid with a love for cricket. (This is a love that Langley shares with his character, according to his 2013 interview with News24.) Recently, he also had a small role in The Dating Game Killer, a fact-based, made-for-TV movie about a serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game. Despite his role in The Kissing Booth being a small one, Langley is no doubt officially on your radar now. Here's hoping his next role is as the romantic lead, rather than the bad guy who gets pummeled.<doc-sep>When I signed into my Netflix account and caught the first few moments of The Kissing Booth splash across my screen, I thought the Netflix original movie seemed like a great option for older kids on a rainy day. It had all the makings of a quirky romantic comedy — and seemed like a pretty tame option at first. But, boy, was I wrong. From a parent's point of view, the trailer is the epitome of misleading: it seems like a relatively innocent love story that mimics the classic storyline of an older, handsome jock falling for the younger nerd. That's true from a larger perspective, but when it comes to The Kissing Booth, the devil is in the details. The story follows Shelly "Elle" Evans, who's played by Joey King (you may recognize her from Ramona and Beezus) and Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney), who have been besties since birth. Everything seems to be running smoothly until the characters' hormones start to kick in, and Elle catches the eye of Lee's handsome older brother, Noah (Jacob Elordi). Throw in a school fundraiser that requires a kissing booth and a little bit of sneaking around on Noah and Elle's part and you have a recipe for disaster as far as high school relationships are concerned. And while The Kissing Booth may make for a hilarious date night, we'd recommend that parents keep their kids away from this flick even though it's technically rated TV-14. Here are the most concerning aspects that make this one a pass for parents. And on the off-chance that you cave and let your kids watch it because all their friends have seen it, make sure you discuss sexual assault and underage drinking with them beforehand.<doc-sep>The Kissing Booth's Jacob Elordi Is Obviously a Giant, but Exactly How Tall Is He? There are a few reasons there's so much buzz around Netflix's movie The Kissing Booth: the film is a bit wacky, the plot will bring you back to your teen years, and the characters are played by a talented, good-looking cast. Among the characters is hot bad boy Noah Flynn, played by Jacob Elordi. We know that we aren't the only ones who have looked at Jacob and thought, "Yeah, he's tall." But just how tall is he? The Australian actor stands at 6'4". Jacob's costar and onscreen romantic interest in the movie, Joey King, who plays Shelly "Elle" Evans, is actually his real-life girlfriend. And yes, they met on set of The Kissing Booth! But Joey is shorter, much shorter . . . by a whole foot, actually! She's 5'4". While the film is not exactly kid-friendly, it's a silly high school romance that will remind everyone how good it is to not be in high school.<doc-sep>One of the most popular movies in the U.S. is a terrible teen rom-com called “The Kissing Booth,” and it’s not in theaters. Instead, this Netflix Original with its paltry 17 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, shot up to become the No. 4 movie on IMDb, before more recently dropping down to No. 9. Its leads, Jacob Elordi and Joey King, also became the No. 1 and No. 6 most popular stars on IMDb’s StarMeter, respectively, shortly after the film’s launch. The secret to the movie’s success, however, is not just a combination of teenagers’ questionable taste in entertainment and the power of Netflix’s distribution — though both play a major role, clearly. Instead, it’s that “The Kissing Booth” is tapping into a built-in audience: teenage Wattpad users. Yes, Wattpad. In case you’re not familiar, Wattpad is an online site and mobile app where writers can share their original stories — often things like fan fiction or sappy love stories (ahem) — with a wide community of readers. Today, Wattpad is visited by more than 65 million monthly users, who spend a collective 15 billion minutes per month reading its online stories. “The Kissing Booth” was one of its successes. The original story was started on Wattpad back in 2011, and won one of the site’s “Watty Awards” that same year for “Most Popular Teen Fiction.” The story was read a whopping 19 million times while on Wattpad, before the then 17-year-old author Beth Reekles scored a three-book deal with Random House UK in 2013 — becoming the youngest Wattpad writer to earn a book deal at that time, the company notes. London- and L.A.-based Komixx Media — the movie’s producer, which specializes in finding young adult IP with commercial potential — reached out to the author within months of the book deal. And Netflix ordered its adaptation of “The Kissing Booth” in 2016. “The Kissing Booth is a great example of what is possible on Wattpad,” said Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios, the online community’s studio arm that helps make deals for its authors. “Beth was a fresh new voice whose story connected with millions of readers all over the world on Wattpad, before becoming a published book,” he noted. “We were able to work with Netflix to market the film on Wattpad and make sure the story’s fans around the world hit ‘play’ when it started streaming. And now it’s one of the most popular movies on the planet.” Wattpad and Netflix teamed up on a writing contest that asked people to submit their stories of high school love. A number of ads for “The Kissing Booth” also ran on Wattpad, driving viewers to the film’s page on Netflix. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos confirmed to Vulture the title is one of the streaming service’s most popular, saying that “The Kissing Booth” is “one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe the world.” He didn’t cite hard numbers — Netflix doesn’t do that — but the IMDb rankings indicate the movie is at least resonating with its core teen audience. Since the movie launched on Netflix, the published book has also shot up the charts. It’s ranking in the top 10 of three “Teen” categories on Amazon, as of the time of writing, including No. 10 in the “Contemporary Teen Romance” category. Of course, going from an online story to one of the most popular releases in the country is not unique to Wattpad. “50 Shades of Grey” famously began online as “Twilight” fan fiction, for example. But Wattpad has a different audience for its romantic fare than the more adult “50 Shades.” And studios, both traditional and digital, are taking notice. Most recently, Sony Pictures Television acquired the rights to Wattpad story “Death is my BFF,” which was read more than 92 million times, and Hulu gave a straight-to-series order to “Light as a Feather,” which saw more than 2.9 million Wattpad reads. “Cupid’s Match,” which had over 36 million reads, got a pilot on CW Seed. Wattpad has also worked with Turner, Universal Cable Productions (a division of NBCUniversal), eOne and Paramount Pictures, among others. Critical reviews of “The Kissing Booth,” are, as you may expect, fairly negative. It’s panned as “lazy and amateur,” “clumsy and ham-handed” and just simply “not a good movie.” But critical interest in films and what people actually watch are often disconnected. That’s certainly the case here as “The Kissing Booth” has an audience score of 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s better than the top theatrical release, “Ocean’s 8,” which has a 52 percent score; or the even the No. 2 movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which is at 65 percent. “The Kissing Booth” may not be a “good” film, but that hardly seems to matter at this point. It’s popular among a largely younger crowd — a key target for streaming services. These kids and young adults have grown up watching TV and movies on mobile and computer screens, and often stay home from theaters. And they’re reading their fiction on the web and in mobile apps, too. Netflix has catered to this young audience before, with arguably “bad” but popular original films like “Bright” (26 percent critics versus 85 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes); or the “so bad it’s good” holiday film “A Christmas Prince.” With Netflix’s now 125 million subscribers and its $1.5 billion in new debt financing, the service has the potential to tap into any key demographic like this time and time again, and serve up a hit — terrible as it may be. And that hit can reach a mass audience, bigger than cable TV or even the Hollywood productions in theaters, in some cases. Hopefully, at least some of them will be “good” by all measures, though, not just viewership.<doc-sep>
The Kissing Booth is the teen romance that Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos claims is "one of the most watched movies in the world right now." And that's a big problem. Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate a glittery high school fantasy as much as the next person—seriously, I've seen all of Riverdale. But The Kissing Booth isn't just the latest movie setting unrealistic expectations for teenagers. Instead, it is a two hour tribute to Netflix's trend of valuing controversial (and too often willfully ignorant) content over quality young adult narratives. The Kissing Booth is a bad movie, as its shallow characters, erratic pacing, laughable dialogue, and 17% Rotten Tomatoes score can confirm. And yet, scads of young viewers are obsessing over its story, with some even demanding it be turned into a television series. Like 13 Reasons Why, The Kissing Booth dazzles fans by peppering its plot with hot button topics and then blowing right past them. In an hour and forty-five minutes, audience members are jerked through depictions of slut shaming, manipulative relationship tactics, fetishization of minors, allegations of domestic violence, sexual harassment and assault, dangerous underage drinking habits, and a really big helping of toxic masculinity. Some fans defend the movie by nodding to the likability of the romcom's star couple. But if you watch with an even remotely discerning eye, you'll quickly notice these lovebirds' abusive relationship represents insidious and unacceptable stereotypes. First, there's Elle Evans (Joey King) who is given plenty of quirky dialogue and whose tomboyish ways are detailed in the film's excruciatingly long setup. But that's about it in terms of breaking sexist cliches. From running around the men's locker room half-naked and covered in paint to sliding slow motion down a slip-n-slide, Elle spends nearly the entire film in booty shorts, crop tops, bathing suits, and her underwear. The trendy clothes that indicate she is (and I quote) "asking for it" lead to her hunky suitor protecting her from groping and endless ogling for the entire storyline. My advice to the filmmakers: For the sake of your young audience, grow up. That knight in shining armor is Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), who jumps at the chance to violently attack anyone who threatens his love interest. And when Elle later asks him about his anger issues, he responds that he's "just wired" that way—bringing the "boys will be boys" defense to the aid of this already problematic character. As Noah gets increasingly possessive, he often yells at Elle for not doing as he says, at one point claiming she has "a lot to learn." When Elle sticks up for herself, Noah ever so charmingly calls her "bossy." Did Tina Fey's best-selling book really teach him nothing? This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mountain of mistakes The Kissing Booth makes. Unfortunately, the negative realities of this romcom don't seem to be resonating with its fervent fan base. My advice to the filmmakers on their next teen project? For the sake of your young audience, grow up.