If you need an example of a modern, progressive, teen romance film to show to your parents or cry about with your friends on a Friday night, then Love, Simon is for you. While it does not escape the grasp of generic teen romance, it is still an exceptional film that sheds some much-needed light on closeted gay teens and their struggles. This movie perfectly encapsulates the life of Simon, a teenager with a huge secret: he's gay. The story is beautiful, the performances were great, and the message in this movie is spectacular, providing a pleasant breath of air into today's social environment.
Obviously, as in many similar films of the genre, the story and character relationships are the most important pieces in building this film. The writing was fantastic and built a modern world that lots of people can relate to. The character development was arguably the most important aspect of this film, as Simon went through so much but proudly emerged in the end. It was amazing seeing gay representation throughout this film and the struggles that one goes through in deciding when to come out to their family and friends. The strongest message behind this film was embracing your true self, and that was done excellently by the directing paired with the writing. Greg Berlanti, known for his creation and work on the Arrowverse, makes his feature film debut with this movie. He is an openly gay man who definitely knows the struggles behind coming out. His direction was very clear and emotionally-riveting, and he was the perfect choice to helm this film, which is actually adapted from the book Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda.
Parts of the direction that brilliantly stood out to me were the focus on Simon while maintaining interesting relationships with his friends and the emotional scenes that come with this genre of film. I was blown away seeing how well Berlanti handled Simon's story with the other characters. While the focus of the film was obviously on Simon, the other characters' relationships were given enough time to develop too. Even though Simon's friends pissed me off when they all ditched him, I can understand where they were coming from, because they had not known that he was dealing with much bigger problems. Much of this film, like any romance film, was very emotionally-draining and made for some memorable scenes. All of the scenes between Simon and his friends after his friends found out were very intense. While some of them were angry with him, like his best friend, others were more sympathetic, and this just adds to the realness of the movie. Everyone is going through something and depending on the time in your life when you find out your best friend is gay, people have different responses. However, the most emotional scene for me was the first time Simon talked to his dad after finding out. The pure regret and sympathy shown by his dad for all the gay jokes throughout the years was very sweet and made me shed (only a few, I promise) tears. The humor in this film was also handled very well with the drama. The "LA liberal college" scene and the "mom, I'm hetero" scene were hilariously relevant and were a nice touch to the tone of this movie.
The performances in this film definitely helped make it as charming as it was. Nick Robinson was fantastic as Simon and his parents Emily and Jack (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) were spectacular too. Katherine Langford (Leah), Alexandra Shipp (Abby), and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Nick) were all great and brought so much life to their characters. Another very important performance was Keiynan Lonsdale, who played Bram. Lonsdale plays Kid Flash in the Arrowverse and we can thank Berlanti for including him in this film, as he did an excellent job. My only problem with his character was the reveal that he was Blue the entire time. I thought that the reveal of Blue would make more sense, as I believe it should have been the piano-playing, theater boy. During the Halloween party scene, we are led to believe that Bram is straight because he was seen making out with a girl on the bed in the upstairs of the house. Once he is revealed to be Blue, Bram says that he was just drunk and confused and it only lasted a few minutes. I personally did not like this part of the writing, as it dismissed Bram's sexuality as an excuse to make him Blue. I get that he was drunk and confused, but so was Simon. And he was never shown sucking face with a girl. My only other issue was its lack of original shots and editing. I was not expecting, much, however, as this genre never really focuses on that aspect.
Love, Simon is an incredibly beautiful film not just about coming out, but also learning to accept others for who they are. It is not only important for this film to be this popular in today's culture, but at all times. People are people and we all deserve to feel loved and accepted. I would strongly recommend this movie for fans of this genre and fans of anything sweet in general. With a great cast and relevant messages, this romance will definitely not be soon forgotten.
My Rating: ★★★★
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