Love, Simon (Review)

You’re Going to Love Love, Simon!

Love, Simon is very much the kind of movie that we need in this day and age. All too often, we see the same old tried and true cliches with it comes to coming of age stories, and while there’s nothing wrong with watching the straight, cis, geeky white guy find himself and win the girl, it’s a cliche for a reason. You can’t throw a rock in a movie theater without hitting one of those flicks. Love, Simon gives us all the delicious cliches we’ve come to know and love but wraps them up in a package that is everything I never knew I wanted.

For those of who haven’t gotten a chance to catch the trailer or read the poster for Love, Simon, it’s a story about a gay teenager coming to terms with his sexuality. Nick Robinson is brilliant as the lead, Simon. The range of emotions he portrays throughout the film hits hard as his charm and charisma earn him a place early on in audiences hearts. All you want for Simon is for him to have a happy ending because he’s a good kid. Of course, he makes his fair share of mistakes along the way, but what hero doesn’t? His mistakes aren’t selfish or due to any sort of hubris, no his downfall is that he’s a teenager, and teens don’t know what the hell they’re doing. That right there is probably why I found him so relatable. Because while Simon is gay, he’s not treated like a stereotype or a cliche, instead he’s just a boy trying to figure out his life. It just so happens that he’s gay, and that makes things a little more complicated.

Love, Simon never tries to pander to the audience. Sure there are some theater scenes with a couple of song and dance numbers, but he’s not a caricature. For me, that’s something I absolutely adore about this movie and all the characters in it. Robinson’s supporting cast is not only talented but also a pretty diverse lot. All of them though are given characters with such depth to them, that they quickly become as important to the audience as they are to Simon. We grow to care a great deal for his friends (played by the likes of Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Alexandra Shipp, and Katherine Langford). In an odd way, they’re almost like horoscopes in that everyone can see some of their old high school friends in them, but none of them are paint-by-numbers filler characters. Instead, it’s almost like Greg Berlanti manages to tap into some sort of high school teel archetypes that we all know and recognize. That right there is why Love, Simon is such a wonderful example of good storytelling.

The film is a bit of an emotional roller coaster, especially because Simon finds himself falling for an anonymous student he met on a school message board. While it hard to create chemistry with a character you hardly ever see, Robinson manages to pull it off masterfully. Even though we never meet the mysterious “Blue” until the end of the movie, Simon’s quest to find love manages to put a character we hardly know on a pedestal and the mystery surrounding his identity keeps the audience guessing. Every film has a villain though, and while there is an actual bad guy in the movie, even he is likable in a weird sort of way. The real villain though is social norms. One of the big questions that is asked throughout Love, Simon is “why do gay people have to come out? Why is straight the default?” Given how far we’ve come (and yet how far we have to go) this is a pretty decent question for the audience to ponder. Why is it that some kids have to hide, feeling a sense of shame for who they are? Why don’t straight people have to “come out”? Bring a teen is rough, and this added pressure is something that drives Simon forward. Part of his hesitancy to come out stems from him being resentful that he has to.

I can’t stress how important I feel Love, Simon is. Not only is it a film featuring a gay teen finding himself in high school, but it also is chalked full of diverse characters that are not just window dressing to appease audiences. Black Panther lead a charge with its diversity, making it one of the most important movies in years, and Love, Simon is following right behind it. These two movies are proving that 2018 is not just a great year for films, but it’s a woke year as well. There is a real effort to create diversity in cinema and not just in a pandering way to shut up those kids on Tumblr. No, these are movies that are funny, heartfelt, awe-inspiring, and will get plenty of “dust in your eye” for a few scenes. Love, Simon is an outstanding movie. It’s one that exceeded all my expectations and left me feeling wonderful and terrible at the same time. Wonderful, because it’s a beautiful film. Terrible, because I had no idea this was missing from my life and that just proves that I have a long way to go. However, if Hollywood continues to put in the effort when it comes to these sorts of films, I feel like I’ll be a much better person for it.

So, if you’re looking for a movie that will make you laugh, make you cry, and probably make you just a little bit better of a person, you really can’t go wrong with Love, Simon. Hell, even if you don’t want to be a better person, go see it anyways. You won’t regret it and Hollywood won’t regret backing movies like this. I see it as a win-win, and you can feel that way about it too… After you see Love, Simon.