(following review copied from my letterboxd)
"i'm not just great with my hands"
SWOON. But also, After? Embarrassed. The Kissing Booth? In the corner crying. Perfect Addiction? Six feet under. In all seriousness "Sidelined: The QB and Me" is easily one of the best wattpad adaptations to be made so far. Unfortunately, I do have to compare to the ones we have gotten so far. Because this movie isn't riddled with endless montages to try to make up for acting or lack of plotline (which we know after decided to switch out montages for the hundreds of pages of plot they could've used) and not cringe seen on top of cringe scene. Don't get me wrong. There are a few sprinkled in, but this movie didn't try to be something that it's not. It knew exactly what it was and who the audience was and what the audience wants.
With this being based on the book (The QB Bad Boy and Me) I knew there was bound to be some changes, but the ones made only made it better. In the book Noah's character (Drayton) sister is murdered and left her dead on the side of the road which does bring a good emotional moment in the book, but it's thrown in so randomly that it doesn't seem realistic, but in the film it is changed and better built up. I also would like to see the diversity of the cast, and the characters may not be an all straight cast.
Also I'll be honest I like to see my movies have sex scenes, especially when it comes from such a smutty genre, but I like that this was more of a fade to black case. Which I knew it would be with them being high schoolers and also being know Noah Becks film debut (I don't think he would bear at all for his first film and I respect that).
All in all, I hope this film will bring a long partnership between Wattpad/Webtoons and Tubi. I would also really love to see the Director work with these two studios, because he just captured everything so perfectly. (i'm really praying he'll get to do the adaptation for "The Bad Boy's Girl" by Blair Holden next - which in my dreams stars Olivia Holt as Tessa O'Connell).
