Perfect Addiction

Langreview English Version Fakten & Credits

Books and stories have long since ceased to be confined to the shelves of libraries and bookshops. In the course of general digitalisation, it was feared that reading would be pushed further and further into the background and replaced by films and audio works. But the internet immediately offered new opportunities and reading has now become a popular sport and large social media platforms like TikTok are picking up on the interest. The time of publishing books exclusively through corresponding publishers is over and more and more people are devoting themselves to self-publishing. Inexpensive solutions such as e-books mean that almost anyone can make their stories available to a readership. Many young authors live on platforms like Wattpad, where free texts can be published. These are often youth books and fan fiction, but the romance sector is not neglected either.

Claudia Tan was also one of these self-publishers at the time. In 2017, at the age of 17, she published the second part of her “Perfect” series of stories, which immediately achieved incredible success and was viewed a whole 80 million times. A film adaptation of this book is therefore only natural. Wattpad WEBTOON Studios is an in-house studio that is supposed to bring Wattpad’s stories to the outside world through films and television programmes. After the still ongoing “AFTER” series has already set the box office ablaze, it comes as no surprise that Castille Landon, who has already realised AFTER LOVE and AFTER FOREVER and is currently working on AFTER EVERYTHING, has also been asked to realise PERFECT ADDICTION.

That’s what it’s all about

Things couldn’t get much better for Sienna. As a UFC coach she enjoys a high reputation and it is possible for her to combine sport and private life as her partner is the current MMA champion Jax. When she’s not worrying about sports, she’s at university with her best friend and preparing for life. But this wonderful and ideal world comes to an abrupt end when she catches Jax cheating on her with her younger sister. A break-up is out of the question, but what is to happen next? She has to move out of their shared flat as soon as possible and gets help from Kayden, her best friend’s brother. He is also active in the mixed martial arts scene. This is a perfect development for Sienna, because now she has the opportunity to take revenge on Jax. But will she risk everything?

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Review

The film title hasn’t even been released yet, and already the first cinema guest is shouting: bingo! PERFECT ADDICTION can be described as a cliché in film format, because downright everything screams of getting a modern teen romance here, which plays far away from values and feelings and, similar to the complete AFTER series, only focuses on the next sex scene. Even Chat GPT would get sick at the dialogue, as phrases like “[any event or person] brought us back to real life” or “he needs me” or even “I’m not that easy to have” are probably among the most disgusting levels of communication a work can pick up. But almost worse is that these contents have no value whatsoever and are thrown right back over the pile at the next opportunity. This film even perfects contradicting itself within a single minute, which can basically be considered an achievement.

But before too much bad blood flows at this point and the wrong impression is given: Castille Landon actually manages to hide an exciting essence in the generic story, which has the potential to positively set this film apart from the usual uncreative and sexualised teen films. Large parts of the plot are dedicated to MMA sports and show physically impressive performances. It is remarkable that the corresponding scenes are quite reduced in their editing sequence, which gives the impression of well-trained actors who sacrifice themselves for their roles. In fact, lead actress Kiana Madeira told us in an interview that she trained intensively for eight weeks to achieve the necessary physical shape. Despite all its superficiality, this insight into MMA fighting is definitely an appealing approach that arouses curiosity about the sport and gives off a few vibes of FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY.

Landon takes the big punch

But Landon goes even further and in PERFECT ADDICTION finally establishes a leading lady who not only exudes a weak, broken and almost infantile personality, but who definitely knows how to fight back and is at least partially on par with her two male counterparts. Compared to other films in the teen romance genre, the viewers, especially young women, are thus shown a much more progressive way of living together, even if this unfortunately does not yet mean that Kiana’s character can be considered a completely independent modern woman.

Apart from these bright spots, however, we are presented with the same picture as ever. Nothing really seems to fit together, the entire plot is basically predictable from the first second and everything screams that this is another silly teen crush. Fans of this type of film will get their money’s worth, as the perfectly trained boys in their controversial personalities show plenty of skin frequently enough. To round it all off appropriately, there are once again several sex scenes that can only laboriously still be described as child-friendly. The main problem is that young people are served up a way of dealing with intimacy and partnership that is unworldly and is only meant to satisfy the cravings of adolescent young people.

A slap in the face of the audience

A cinematographic no-go, however, are the completely twisted developments that take place off-camera or in the background of the focused action. Be it that Kiana’s main character knows neither the mother nor the fiancé of her best friend (who, maddeningly, appears in many scenes after they first meet) and surprisingly doesn’t even know that he has a brother who also works in the same sport as she does – or that an illegal cagefight ends with a raid that could just as well have been carried out by the German civil service. A nice dudu and a relaxed end to the “party” where everyone trudges home in blissful peace are the only consequences. But even the story centre is botched for all it’s worth, as an appearance by Matthew Noszka at a wedding becomes a farce by its very striking outfit.

Conclusion

Fans of the AFTER film series will get their money’s worth and experience with PERFECT ADDICTION an even slightly better teen romance than we are used to. Reduced sexualisation, a little more focus on a seemingly existing plot as well as a now more finite back and forth ensure that this film at least comes a little closer to being tolerable. Nonetheless, viewers with even a modicum of aspiration get the old familiar bullshit in terms of both content and technique. As soon as you start to question certain aspects of the film, the work breaks up into clumsy and laconic parts whose affectation is only suitable for embarrassment and, at most, to elicit a shameful laugh. But was it to be expected otherwise? Hardly.

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