Love, Simon Review
Every time I think I’ve run out of good coming-of-age films, I stumble upon something else (usually a few years after it was wildly popular, I’ll admit I’m not the most timely). Last week I checked out Love, Simon, and I couldn’t help but think, “Yeah, this is a worth addition to the teen-movie Canon.”
Full disclosure, I know this is based on the novel Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda, which I also know is a big deal in its own right and which I also missed, so I won’t be making any book-film comparisons. But let’s start with premise.
The film makes the aggressive point that our narrator/protagonist/hoodie aficionado, Simon, is normal. Not just regular normal, mind you. He’s monologue-level normal: the high school sweetheart parents, the special rituals with best friends, the beloved younger sibling. NORMAL. He also happens to be gay, and he’s not out yet, which is causing him levels of stress even he doesn’t seem to realize, until one day an anonymous student from his school admits to being in the same position. An email pen-palship, and possibly more begins to blossom, until a sh*thead named Martin gets involved, and it all gets complicated…
This movie is hilarious. Simon is snarky, especially in his Scrubs-style imaginary cutaway scenes, the adults in his life each have their own quirks and personality, and there’s plenty of quick jokes that are likely to make you snort into your soda while watching.
I (and in my defense, the film) harped a lot on how normal Simon is, and in fair, I think that is a positive to story. That’s not because an LGBT character should have to appear straight for them to be likeable, far from it (the only gay character who’s out at the beginning of the movie, Ethan, steals the scene every time, by the way). But what I love about the film is that while bullying for being gay is on Simon’s mind, it’s just a part of what he’s going through, which is what almost every other teenager goes through: trying to figure out who they are, finding someone they can confide in, and uneasiness about the future. He has realistic flaws. It would take a real heart of stone to see what Simon’s going through and not empathize, no matter where you come from.
It’s one of those well-developed YA stories where EVERY CHARACTER wants something, which sounds so simple, but is in fact pretty hard to pull off. Pop Quiz: you read The Outsiders. What were Two-Bit, Steve, and Benny’s characters all about? You don’t remember. Of course you don’t remember, and not just because I made one of those characters up. But in this film, all the characters want something: companionship, understanding, a better relationship with someone they care about. All of those things are human, and understandable.
Except for Martin. Heck Martin. All my homies hate Martin.
As an added little story trick that I think is so smart, Simon also spends a large portion of the movie trying to figure out who his anonymous pen-pal is, and the guessing game that he and the audience play together is a great reminder for straight viewers how difficult it is to date when you can’t take a person’s orientation for granted (which is not to say that we should, but that often we do). It adds a clever element of mystery and empathy that’s built in dozens of small ways and really makes the movie stand out.
What else is there to say? Leah’s acting comes off little flat, sure, and I think they let Martin off too easy, but that’s what fan fiction is for, I guess.
Really a strong movie, and I hope we’ll see more authentically good ones like it in the years to come. 4.5 iced coffees out of 5 (with milk). It’s streaming on Hulu.