Elle Evans spends the summer after high school at the Flynn family’s beach house in California. She must choose between Harvard, where her boyfriend Noah will study, and Berkeley, where her best friend Lee plans to go. She tries to keep both relationships happy while the house faces sale, Noah grows jealous of Marco, and her father starts dating again. The movie uses bright parties, games, romance, and jokes to tell a loose story about growing up and saying goodbye to school friends.
The clearest woke element is a small gay romance between Ollie and Miles, two school friends who remain a couple in the background. The movie also gives Elle a mild female-empowerment message when she stops choosing a college for Noah or Lee and follows her own interest in video game design. The story presents her career choice as a step toward independence and lets the couple receive a friendly goodbye. Those ideas support Elle’s personal growth for a few scenes, while friendship, romance, family change, and the end of childhood stay at the center.
Community feedback
Was our 20% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Kissing Booth 3.
Woke representation / casting
Not present. The movie uses a mixed modern friend group, including black and Latino supporting characters, but it does not make their identities a message. The casting does not clearly use diversity-first framing.
0%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. The characters do not give political speeches about race, gender, sexuality, DEI, or current political causes. Their arguments stay about college, romance, family, and friendship.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
Elle spends the movie learning that she should not choose college only to please Noah or Lee. The film presents her choice to study video game design as a female-empowerment message. The background couple Ollie and Miles remains a confirmed gay relationship and receives a friendly goodbye. These ideas are visible, but friendship and romance remain more important than identity politics.
23%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The movie treats Noah’s jealousy and the boys’ pressure over Elle’s college choice as problems. The story also lets Rachel leave Lee so she can protect her own future, and it supports Elle’s choice to build a career outside both relationships. These moments mildly question possessive romance and old expectations for girls, but the movie does not attack Western institutions or social systems.
12%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film adapts Beth Reekles’s teen romance story, but no identity-driven change to a known character, canon, or historical figure is central to the movie.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. Available social-media checks found no clear anti-woke posts, boycott, large-account push, or review-bombing. Audience and conservative reviews mainly discuss the weak plot, romance choices, sexual content, and romantic worldview.
0%
Creator track record context
Vince Marcello and Beth Reekles have no known activist pattern. Jay Arnold is a gay filmmaker who has made queer-centered stories. Joey King has publicly supported LGBTQ youth, Black Lives Matter, and gun-control causes. Most other listed producers and casting directors have little activist history, so the overall context is a mild signal.
26%
Production
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