To All the Boys: Always and Forever.
Katie Yu/Netflix
As the closing credits scroll on
To All the Boys: Always and Forever, the third and final volume in Netflix’s sweet teen love trilogy, clips from all three films play in the background. And as they played, I found myself desperately trying to work out what it was that made the first entry in the trilogy — 2018’s
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, directed by Susan Johnson — so much more compelling than the other two. Even in soundless 10-second clips, it was so much better than its successors that it hurt a little.