“Love, Simon”, released on March 16, is an enjoyable romp that handles homosexuality with respect and tells a heartwarming story. The movie stars Nick Robinson as “Simon Spier” as he meets an anonymous lover who carries the same secret he does: they are both gay. As the two fall in love, they must navigate coming out to their parents, terrible dialogue, and mediocre cinematography.
“Love, Simon” avoids making a gimmick of homosexuality and delivers a cute “coming of age” flick, despite lack-luster cinematography and inconsistent dialogue.
It is painfully obvious when a movie studio makes a movie about a current social topic, just to cash in on the topic and not actually say or do anything meaningful. Thankfully “Love, Simon” is not one of those movies and manages to be a good teen drama with enough heart to carry it.
“Love, Simon” revolves around Simon Spier, played by Nick Robinson, who has decided to keep his homosexuality a secret from his friends and family and struggles with his identity. This changes when he begins emailing an anonymous blogger from his school who is also gay.
As the movie progresses, Spier grows closer with the blogger, nicknamed Blue, and becomes more comfortable with who he is.
“Love, Simon” is an enjoyable movie and manages to deliver a good message without leaning too far into the corniness or sappiness that many teen dramas fall into.
Typically, the movie manages to stay fairly grounded in reality and portrays a realistic and often sobering depiction of being gay in high school. More often than not, gay characters in movies are often just described as gay with no other character traits or complexity.
To its credit, “Love, Simon” doesn’t use being gay as a novelty act or use the movie as a political platform and becomes a movie that can be enjoyed by any person looking for a good emotional pick-me-up.
“Love, Simon” occasionally stumbles with overly dramatic scenes that dangerously walk believability and jokes about the internet that were clearly written who has no idea how teens use the internet.
Other flaws are also fairly noticeable, such as a lack of interesting camera shots, and cinematography that looks like it was ripped out of any generic high school movie. There is also a fair amount of stiff acting from some of the supporting characters and an antagonist that feels unnecessary and forced especially during one ludicrous scene at the end.
“Love, Simon” is a decent movie with a great message. The movie won’t be taking home any best picture nominations, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an entertaining and heartfelt romp through Spier’s life. If anyone is looking for a fun movie, that will leave them a little happier than before, they could do a lot worse than “Love, Simon”.
