He has returned! Noah Centineo is gracing our lives with his presence again in his latest project “The Perfect Date” on Netflix. Want to know about it before you watch even though you’re going to watch it? Well, you came to the right place.
The perfect date is about a high school senior by the name of Brooks Hannigan. When we first meet him, he’s on the path of trying to get into the college of his dreams, Yale. It’s the biggest goal of his life and it seems to be all he really wants in life. He works with his best friend, Murph (played by Odiseas Georgiadis – who you should keep an eye out for in the future) at a subway shop in a small town in Connecticut trying to leave that town as soon as he can – hence Yale. When he hears this guy that he goes to school with at the subway shop complaining about having to take his cousin to a semi-formal, Brooks offers to take her in exchange for the money and getting to drive the guys car.
The guy agrees and that’s how Brooks meets Celia (played by Laura Marano) – a girl who is very anti-formal, anti-girly and very chill. She also happens to live on the north side of town, which is where the richer people live (and where Brooks wants to be). The two go to the dance and have a decent time and become friends soon after. Celia throws out the idea and the “stand-in” app is created – where you can pick the perfect date that you want – an art enthusiast, dance partner, country boy – you name it. The app allows Brooks to start earning money for Yale but it all ends up blowing up in his face big time.
Courtesy of IMDB
Noah’s character has his flaws, that’s for sure. Yet I love that his character is very relatable to things today. A lot of times we feel like we have to go to name schools, that money and fame equal success and that having the iconic movie dream girl, dream school and dream life is the only thing that show that you are successful in life. For example, Brooks gets a full ride to UConn – which is a great school – but to him it’s not enough. Wether this is because of expectations or society, there’s a lot of pressure to go to a big name college, get a degree and have “the perfect life” these days. All while we’re still trying to figure out who we are and what we want to do with life.
This movie is not perfect but it has a good way of talking about expectations and figuring out who we are. We learn to embrace our flaws as people. We talk about the different kinds of people in high school: the popular girl, the girl who wants to be rebel and different, the smart tech-guy, the rich guy and the everyday guy. We also see the comparisons about money and lifestyle and we learn that sometimes, being yourself is just enough. It’s kind of cliché but it’s still really cute. The chemistry between Laura Marano and Noah Centineo is very high school-esque and it paints a good rom-com picture. The bromance between Brooks and his best friend is also a good one over the course of the movie and you get to see Brooks figure it out.
While no one can come even close to Peter Kavinsky (AKA the love of our life), “The Perfect Date” is a cute new rom-com to enjoy on movie and wine night.