Naomi and Ely have grown up next door to each other in a New York City apartment with childhoods marred by parental infidelity.
Naomi’s mother stays in bed all day while her dad is almost completely out of her life. Although Ely’s two mothers have technically reconciled, their relationship is tense and problematic. Perhaps consequently, Naomi and Ely are experiencing changes in their own romantic lives.
Naomi has reservations about losing her virginity, and Ely is enjoying his newfound freedom as an openly gay college student. The film grabs its title from the No Kiss List that the two protagonists keep in order to prevent jealousy from affecting their friendship. Nonetheless, jealousy inevitably comes between them, and Naomi and Ely are forced to reassess their friendship.
Director Kristin Hanggi’s Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List stars Victoria Justice as Naomi and Pierson Fode as Ely. The film is almost good. Its primary mission, I assume, is to explore the effects that infidelity has on parenting and on friendship, and it somewhat achieves the goal.
The film’s main issue is that it does not execute the most important element of any production; it is not entertaining enough. The writing is sub par, and the acting is lackluster as well. What was a good opportunity to explore meaningful and relevant subjects ended up being a teeny bop version of a film that could have been more artistically gratifying. It is hard to take a film seriously in which the characters cannot be taken seriously.
