Internet’s newest heartthrob, Noah Centineo, is the star of another Netflix’s original romantic comedy, and this time he’s accompanied by Laura Marano (Austin & Ally), Odiseas Georgiadis and Camila Mendes (Riverdale). With Chris Nelson on the director’s chair, “The Perfect Date” was written by Steve Bloom and Randal Green and it revolves around teens in high school.
Whenever you think about Netflix and romantic comedies in the same sentence, there’s a pretty big chance you’ll think about a somewhat cliche storyline. That’s what you’ll get with this movie, and if we’re being honest, it’s hard to find a romantic comedy that doesn’t follow very similar plotlines, so we’re not going to hold that against the movie.
Image Source: IMDb
Centineo is Brooks Rattigan, a name you’ll know as soon as you start watching due to the narration of a letter he wrote – but didn’t send – to Yale’s Admissions Office, the university he wants to go to after highschool. Brooks lives alone with his father Charlie Rattigan (Matt Walsh, from Veep) after his mom left them and built an entire new family.
Odiseas Georgiadis is Murph, Brooks’ best friend. He’s very good at coding and programming, works at a sandwich shop with Brooks, and is a black and gay teenager. One of the best (and most refreshing) parts of the movie, in our opinion, is the fact that, even though he’s gay, this is not something that is turned into a stereotype, he doesn’t become just the “gay best friend”, he’s the best friend, and that’s that. Everyone say: “thank you, Netflix!”.
Laura Marano plays Celia Lieberman, a sarcastic, smart, funny and rebellious teen, probably the character that has the most personality out of all of them. Celia is rich and an only daughter, but she doesn’t fit into the mold when it comes to this type of character.
Let’s start talking about the story, shall we?
Brooks has the dream of getting into Yale, an Ivy League school, and he has the grades for it, but not the money, or an outstanding extracurricular. When he gets the chance of earning extra money by taking Celia to a highschool dance, he jumps on the opportunity and realizes that he could be the perfect stand-in.
It starts with a joke made by Celia, and it continues with Brooks enlisting his best friend Murph to create an app – the Stand-In – a way to sell Brooks as a plus-one for all kinds of occasions, from rodeo to dating practice.
Image Source: IMDb
With this, the money problem was solved, but when he gets blinded by the perspective of being rich, and being whoever he wants – or what people want him to be –, he loses himself even more. Wanting to date the “perfect girl”, drive the coolest car, and go to his dream college, Brooks forgets his best friends, his dad and, overall, who he wants to be.
The main character is deeply flawed and, therefore, very relatable to the audience. We’ve all felt lost at some point in our lives. He wants to go to Yale more than anything and thinks that it will be enough to fulfill himself in life, the problem is he focuses only on that and let’s every other aspect of his life on the side.
He’s very self-centered and isn’t the best son or friend. Brooks lets that one thing (going to Yale) define who he is and then gets to a point of his life where he doesn’t know how to define himself in other terms.
Image Source: IMDb
And that’s what the movie is about: idealization, seeing only the good aspects of something and being blinded by it. Celia has a crush on a boy she has never really talked to, Murph loves a boy whose name he doesn’t even know, Brooks wants to go to Yale no matter what and wants to date a popular girl (Camila Mendes) he has never met.
And because of that idealization, the characters are willing to lie to themselves and become completely different people. But here’s the catch, the secret no one tells you: being yourself is enough.
That’s the journey our characters go through in this story, that’s the lesson they learn. Brooks has to actually act like several different types of people to finally get to that realization. You don’t have to change who you are to achieve your dreams and be fulfilled.
“The Perfect Date” is a fun movie overall, a silly good hearted romantic comedy and, if you watch it, a good time is guaranteed. Plus, If you’ve watched Disney Channel’s show “Austin & Ally” and have rooted for Ally to date Dallas instead of Austin – even for a second, this movie may be a good way of having this dream come true.
And finally, to make you life even easier, here’s the trailer!