Love, Simon is groundbreaking as the first gay coming of age film by a major studio. Although, it is more than what it seems on the surface.
This is what straight people must feel like when they watch romantic comedies. That’s a comment that I’ve been seeing a lot about Love, Simon, the newest film by Greg Berlanti based on Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon vs. the Homo-Sapiens Agenda. It’s not wrong. There have been countless sappy coming-of-age stories told about straight people with barely etched characters and an emotionally manipulative tearjerker of a plot that turns uplifting in the end. However, first the first time ever, a major studio — 20th Century Fox — made one about a gay teen. For that, Love, Simon, deserves tons of praise. And while it does feel like The Perks of Being a Wallflower for gay teens, there’s an understanding the film has that will allow countless people in the LGBTQ+ community to see their experience somewhere on screen.
I’m not naive to the fact that the titular Simon Spiers (Nick Robinson) is a straight-passing, white, good-looking teen who comes from a more than financially comfortable family in the Atlanta suburbs. Love, Simon is the mainstream version of a gay romantic comedy. But that’s not necessarily a fault of the movie. Berlanti, who is gay, always reminds us that Simon is gay in subtle ways that will feel all too relatable to the community — that obsessing over whether someone is gay or not, the awkwardness whenever someone makes a straight comment at you. To the movie’s credit, it’s not about the process of discovering your sexuality. When we meet Simon, he’s already come to terms with the fact that he’s gay. Though, he isn’t out yet. He emphasizes that he’s just like “you.”
Simon has a strong network of friends and family. His best friends Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) have grown up together, while Abby (Alexandra Shipp) only recently moved to the town, but fit in with the group perfectly. However, none of them know he’s gay. Neither does his family — his parents, Jack (Josh Duhamel) and Emily (Jennifer Garner, fantastic here), and sister Nora (Talitha Bateman). He’s simply not ready to change his world. A feeling that a lot of us had before coming out. However, when an anonymous student — he goes by the name Blue — in his school posts on a Tumblr-like website comes out, Simon finally begins considering that coming out may not be all that bad.
What Berlanti nails is that before coming out, so many gay people live in fantasies. In Love, Simon, Simon fantasizes about various other boys in his life being Blue, following each thread until he’s left heartbroken by the fact that they aren’t who he’s looking for — Joey Pollari, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Miles Heizer are among them. At the center, of course, is the school musical that stars Martin (Logan Miller) as the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret. A blackmail plot complicates Simon’s online relationship with Blue, which is progressing quickly as the two help each other come to accept themselves and eventually be accepted by others. On the outskirts of the main plot, other characters deal with their own issues and identities. It’s something that I wish the film explored more.
As Simon pursues his love story, the movie’s importance becomes more clear. I will add to the cacophony of people saying, “if I had seen this movie when I was a teen…” Of course, there are other queer movies that teens can clench to — Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name are recent examples, Closet Monster is an underrated one. However, in addition to being a mainstream release, Love, Simon doesn’t deal with the devastating side of being gay — it has its moments, but nowhere near those in the movies I mentioned. But that’s not the space it needs to be dealing in. The movie is idealistic and corny, but by the end, I was laughing and crying along with it. I was floating as I left the theater. If this is what straight people felt like when they watch romantic comedies, then I’m extremely jealous then get one of these a month.
That’s not to say Love, Simon is typical. Thanks to its synthy score by Rob Simonsen and music direction by Bleacher’s Jack Antonoff, the movie moves swiftly from emotional beat to emotional beat while scoring laughs along the way — Tony Hale and Natasha Rothwell score the most as the school’s principal and drama teacher, respectively. It’s emotionally manipulative and corny but hooks you in a way that makes you not mind it at all. It’s going to fill adults with nostalgia or regret, depending on your experience. More importantly, though, it’s going to tell gay teens that your coming out story is yours. No one can take it from you. You can exhale.
★★★★ out of 5
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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.