Kissing Booth 2, The

Story

Once popular at her Los Angeles high school as the organiser of the infamous Kissing Booth and also as the girlfriend of hot and handsome bad boy Noah (Jacob Elordi), Elle (Joey King) is now in her senior year of high school and has new challenges to tackle.

Noah has gone to Harvard University, so Elle is trying to sustain a long-distance relationship with him while deciding which colleges to apply to herself. At Harvard, Noah seems to have found a new friend, Chloe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), who’s outrageously attractive, smart and popular. Back home in Los Angeles, Elle is forced to ‘share’ her bestie Lee (Joel Courtney) with his girlfriend Rachel (Meganne Young). She also needs money to make an application to Harvard a realistic option for herself.

To solve the latter problem, Elle decides to enter a dance competition with Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the new kid at school. Marco is not only amazing at dancing, but also ‘steaming hot’ and charming. This creates additional tension in Elle’s already fragile relationship with Noah.

Themes

Teenage romance; high school comedy; rich kid lifestyle; friendship; coming of age; dancing

Violence

The Kissing Booth 2 has no violence.

Sexual references

The Kissing Booth 2 has numerous sexual references. For example:

Elle watches a video of Marco exercising topless, and lengthily describes how ‘hot’ his different body parts are. She makes it clear that she’s aroused and compares him to a dessert she wants to eat.
It’s implied that Elle and Noah have sex.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

The Kissing Booth 2 shows some use of substances. For example:

Characters drink at a pub, and Elle falls over. She seems to be drunk.
Characters use fake ID to be served alcohol.

Nudity and sexual activity

The Kissing Booth 2 has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:

Noah is shown with only a towel around his hips.
Other male characters are seen topless on several occasions.
Two boys kiss passionately.
Sex isn’t explicitly shown, but Elle and Noah kiss passionately. They undress each other, and touch each other intimately.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in The Kissing Booth 2.

Coarse language

The Kissing Booth 2 has some coarse language.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Kissing Booth 2 is the sequel to teenage romantic comedy The Kissing Booth. Both movies are based on Beth Reekle’s book series of the same title. Like its predecessor, The Kissing Booth 2 is packed with slapstick humour and stereotypes of rich Los Angeles white high school kids.

The Kissing Booth 2 is tamer than the first movie. For example, it has no violent and aggressive behaviour. There’s also less inappropriate, excessive, underage drinking and fewer sex scenes, particularly public ones. But the movie still includes some concerning messages.

For example, Elle is in no way a role model for young women. She lies, ignores other people’s needs and feelings because she’s preoccupied with her own agenda, and ultimately decides to stay in a relationship that’s characterised by suspicion, disappointment and lack of trust. In fact, she organises her life around relationships rather than making independent, self-confident decisions.

Because of these aspects, along with illegal, underage drinking and frequent coarse language, The Kissing Booth 2 isn’t appropriate for children under 14 years. We also recommend parental guidance for teenagers under 16 years. If your child really wants to watch one of The Kissing Booth movies, this is a slightly better choice than the first in the series.

The main messages from The Kissing Booth 2 are that life and relationships are full of tricky decisions, and that honesty and open communication can save everyone from trouble and disappointment.

The Kissing Booth 2 mostly offers a guide to how not to be behave. As such, it does highlight some values that you could reinforce with your children, including honesty, open communication, conflict resolution, friendship and responsible, age-appropriate behaviour.

The Kissing Booth 2 could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

dishonesty – for example, Elle lies and keeps things secret from her best friend, which leads to disappointment and conflict
poor communication – many of the issues that arise between Elle and Noah, Elle and Lee, and Lee and Rachel could have been avoided if they’d communicated clearly, openly, and honestly.