Love, Simon

Love, Simon (2018)

“You get to exhale now. You get to be more you than you have been in a very long time.”

Synopsis from IMDB: “Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he’s gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.”

Love, Simon was such a refreshing film.  It’s probably one of the most real films made recently in the whole coming out/coming of age genre.  And there were a lot of things to like about the film.

I really enjoyed the story.  A lot of it revolved around the fact that Simon was keeping being gay a secret, but it was more than that.  It was about figuring out how to be who you are without losing who you are.  The film also kept a secret, and as it progressed it was fun to see how Simon was trying to solve his mystery.

In the beginning of the movie, one of Simon’s friends is talking about a dream he had where he put the wrong contacts in.  His other friend, Abby, says that maybe it’s because he’s not seeing something that’s right in front of his face.  I liked that the movie foreshadowed things along the way and made the dialogue more than surface level. It gave us insight into what the characters were thinking.

I also found it refreshing that the character talks about why he’s not out.  Many recent movies seem to manufacture something unrealistic about why the character isn’t out, or it is simply not understandable where the strife comes from.  In Love, Simon this is actually addressed.  It makes the film more believable.

The waiting and suspense depicted also struck me – this might be because I remember feeling the same way about the same things that Simon did in high school.  He was waiting and trying to figure out who someone was, and in suspense for the next email (or clue) to come.  I remember in high school trying to figure out if my latest crush was also gay, and the feelings that accompanied that wondering.  I felt like this movie brought that to the screen in a realistic way.

At times I was irritated with Simon for some of the choices he was making.  But he is such a likeable character that you understand his backstory and why he does what he does.  It doesn’t make it right, but it makes him an appropriately flawed person that makes the story worthwhile.

“Announcing to the world who you are is pretty terrifying,” and I feel like Love, Simon captured this particular coming of age experience really well.  Recommended, and I’m pretty sure this will be one of my top choices for gay films that come out this year.

Availability: In Theaters