Max is a high school student with a strange problem: everyone he's attracted to dies from the sheer force of his good looks, and Looks That Kill turns that absurd premise into a coming-of-age comedy about learning to live with a body that seems to work against him.
What is Looks That Kill about?
Stuck at home and homeschooled for most of his life because of his lethal effect on people, Max finally enrolls in a regular high school determined to have something like a normal adolescence. He quickly falls for a classmate, which forces him to confront the real risk his attraction poses to anyone he gets close to. Alongside a loyal best friend and a handful of well-meaning but chaotic adults, Max experiments with ways to manage his condition, from disguises to outright avoidance, none of which hold up for long once real feelings enter the picture. The film uses its exaggerated hook to talk about the more ordinary anxieties of being a teenager who feels fundamentally different from everyone else, letting the comedy carry some surprisingly earnest moments about self-acceptance.
About the cast
Brandon Flynn stars as Max, with Julia Goldani Telles as the classmate who upends his careful routines. Ki Hong Lee, Annie Mumolo, and Peter Scolari round out a supporting cast that leans into the film's comic tone, joined by Lindsay Mushett, Tom Proctor, and Priscilla Lopez. Kellen Moore directs.
Context & significance
Looks That Kill belongs to a small tradition of high-concept teen comedies that use a fantastical twist as a stand-in for the ordinary discomfort of adolescence, in the vein of body-swap or superpower coming-of-age stories. Its 2020 release places it among a wave of American independent comedies that favor a tight cast and a single outlandish premise over larger scale production.
Watching Looks That Kill on Ktime
Looks That Kill streams on K-Time with a free account login, and the site's Farsi interface makes browsing straightforward for Persian-speaking audiences. The film is presented in its original language without Persian dubbing or subtitles, so it suits viewers comfortable following English dialogue directly.