I had never gone to the movies by myself for the first 22 years of my life, up until this weekend. With a mom too tired and friends too busy, I took myself on a little personal-date to my local cinema to meet a boy named Simon.
Love, Simon (2018) is the first feature-length film featuring a gay teenage boy as the main protagonist with romantic aspirations, released by a major film studio. Many people wonder why it took so long for such an achievement to occur. Still, those who've seen the film are likely to forgive this cinema sin, because the result of years of waiting is so undeniably satisfactory. I sat down in my theater seat to meet a boy named Simon, but I soon learned that it was so much more than just his story told. Simon's journey is a collective one, and each person in his life impacts it in some meaningful way, as Simon impacts theirs. Yes, this film is a coming out story, but it's also very much a "coming in" one as well. Growing into the person you've always known you could be if you were just given a little push in the proper direction. Love, Simon is itself the little nudge of progress that Hollywood needed to catch up with a culture that's ever-evolving and ever-expanding.
Boy meets Girl, and Girl meets Boy is not the only narrative worth telling. Love, Simon has many successes, but its most historic one may end up being how unapologetic it is. Simon notes that "everyone deserves a great love story" but more importantly than that, everyone deserves to have their love story shown, represented and respected. In the span of an hour and fifty-five minutes, Love, Simon achieves all this and more with hardly a single blemish. John Hughes would surely be proud, but more importantly, millions of LGBTQ people and their allies are.
This is not going to be a very long review, at least compared to many others of mine, mainly because I believe that Love, Simon is a film that is better experienced than analyzed. The nuances in the young cast's performances cannot be lauded enough, but better we spend time admiring certain aspects of the film, that might otherwise get overlooked in other mainstream reviews.
Love, Simon crafts a modern gay love story in a world obsessed with technology, as Tony Hale's character, Mr Worth humorously reminds us several times during the film. While the plot uses FaceTime, Gmail, Blogging and Cell Phones as means of both communication and self - expression, it does not become subservient to these technological tools. Love, Simon will age well over the years, because it does not let modern technology over-power its key character-building moments or hamper its story structure with un-engaging sequences of character's thumbs fiddling away at a keyboard. They serve the plot instead of making it feel dated and disassociated. When you watch Breakfast Club (1985) or Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the 80s vibes are not diluting the quality of the work and Love, Simon is spared the same fate by being utterly charming; texts, blog posts and all.
The one glaring scene I found to be a weak link in the otherwise immaculate plot happens to be a rather critical one, Simon coming out to his sister. I could not track Simon's indifferent annoyance towards a sibling he had been nothing but loving and supportive toward since the film started. Furthermore, her reaction itself felt indifferent, and her tears unearned. I understand Simon's frustration at this point in the story, but it didn't feel like Simon would really share this hidden piece of himself with his adoring sister in such a harsh and hollow way. It was unsubstantiated melodrama in a film that effortlessly avoids forced sentimentality for the majority of its running time. I also didn't believe that she would have seen the post that outed him in the first place, which is what instigates the conversation because the blog seemed exclusive to high school students and she is clearly in a younger age bracket. The scene is just not as well thought out as Simon's later personal conversations with both of his parents. A film such as this can be forgiven for such narrative hiccups, though other's may find them as irritating smudges in an almost spotless story. Back to the positive end, the film makes great use of cutaway segments similar to Family Guy but with more context. Moments that take place in Simon's mind surprisingly speak more about our culture and conventions then they do about Simon himself, such as a funny, but thoughtful sequence dictating the unfairness of heterosexuality being the default sexual orientation in modern society.
In the end, I was happy to have seen the film by myself. It's hard to explain exactly why, but it felt more personal like I was physically alongside Simon and his friends as their lives changed for the better, and by viewing their heartfelt experiences, mine did as well. Director Greg Berlanti, screenwriters Issac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger and author Becky Albertalli gave us a story worth celebrating regardless of sexual orientation. At the end of the day, you want Simon to turn out fine not because he's gay, but because he's an incredibly decent and loving person. The film reminds us to celebrate and encourage the goodness in others, so that our own goodness may itself be shown. Appreciating Simon's story, his struggles and successes made me reflect on how I celebrate and embrace those around me, and to ensure that I keep doing so to the very best of my ability. That's why I love Simon because, by the end of the film, you feel like he loves you too.
