Sidelined: The QB and Me

There are a few cliches and stereotypes to be found throughout "Sidelined: The QB and Me". If you're at all familiar with football movies, I'm sure you know which ones I'm talking about.

Said stereotypes and cliches don't take away from the film, which is nothing too spectacular but also not awful, despite what some of the reviews here might tell you.

It even features James Van Der Beek at the main character's pushy father, which doesn't seem right because he was just playing a QB in "Varsity Blues" a few years ago...right?

Siena Agudong as Dallas and Noah Beck as Drayton Lahey were fine. Their chemistry developed over the course of the movie. They had their cheesy romantic moments, of course, which were well-delivered. Never heard of either of them before.

Ultimately, "Sidelined: The QB and Me" is a decent enough sports romance movie. It's not "Any Given Sunday", but it's an easy watch, and good entertainment.

It was exactly what I expected, storyline-wise. But I didn't expect the depth or chemistry between the cast. I put off watching it for a bit because I thought why watch another teenaged romcom when once you've seen one, you've seen them all, but I was caught up in the storyline faster than expected.

There are plenty of moments of swoonworthy lines and scenes. The dialogue felt relatable and comfortable in delivery, which I was certain was going to be the downfall.

Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it predictable? 100%. Does it follow the same recipe of every other movie in its genre? Definitely. But is it worth the watch? Absolutely!

(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).

I personally found to be super cute ,it is different, not explicit but at the same time just giving a little bit of tease. It's not like the usual teen romantic movies because mostly they are very explicit in everyway. I enjoyed the sarcastic jokes and the double meaning jokes aswell. In my opinion this was a very cute teen movie which had a lot of understanding characters who showed maturity. I know the this is not a lot of people cup of tea but to be honest in an industry were there is a lot of explicit movies regarding teens, I personally think that this was a very decent movie. It's not that bad.

I didn't expect a wattpad movie to be this decent. I have been disappointed by modern romcoms and their cringy acting, but this film was far from it. Both leads acted well and there was true chemistry between them. The story was believable and even navigated grief and loss in a sensitive and insightful way.

I particularly enjoyed the soundtrack choices to the point where I would pause the movie just to google the songs. Of course it's still a wattpad romcom so don't go expecting the most powerful and unpredictable plot. But compared to the sloppiness of modern romcoms, this one was a great watch.