In Sierra Burgess Is A Loser, we receive Noah in the form of the all-around lovable, Jamey. Jamey’s character pursues a girl, with the ultimate goal of being a relationship. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before gave us the initially taken Peter, who later falls deeply in love with Lara Jean. In his latest release, Noah Centineo plays freshman womanizer, Lance Black; a college kid with an idea for a new hookup app, hoping to further his own promiscuous agenda.
Ann Fishman, the Writer/Director/Producer of the film, Swiped, also acknowledges how Noah has previously played the “nice guy” in his work. When she decided Noah was perfect for the role of Lance, she stated “What I saw in Noah was a gifted actor capable of nuanced performance.”
It’s nice to see Noah in this newly-defined character. Though many Centineo fans may enjoy and be used to seeing him in the usual likable-guy role, I personally found Lance alluring. The character was attractive because of his good looks, cockiness, and surprisingly, his slick way of getting other people to complete tasks that would ultimately benefit him. He had a cool car and had no problem getting any girls.
One thing that many of these characters have in common is their ability to allow technology to enter the realm of their personal relationships. For some of Noah’s personas, technology pulls through in their favor; others aren’t so lucky. Jamey sees the darker side of technology as he is led on by a girl named Sierra, who pretends to be someone else on the phone and over text. Peter also gets a bad taste of technology as a video of him kissing Lara Jean in a hot tub goes viral on Instagram. Even Lance, who seemingly had it all when his genius hookup app went live, felt the negative effects of technology as the app began upsetting the females on campus.
In this electronic climate we live in today, we must not forget how generations before us met each other and conducted relationships with one another. Human connection and socialization is becoming a lost art. In regards to many of the existing hookup apps today, we see how they are especially concerned with the male demographic as well. This is a very powerful message that comes to light towards the end of Swiped. Lance’s roommate, James, helps a group of sorority girls realize that they don’t need an app to find someone, because all the real tools are inside of them already. The app goes viral but things do turn around…You’ll have to watch to find out!