Love, Simon

Here are my thoughts about Love, Simon:

First, it was definitely the best movie adaptation of a book I've ever seen. Hands down. It was also an extremely authentic story to begin with, and it translated so well as a movie.

Second, I wish this movie had been around when I was younger. The message of love and acceptance was so powerful, and the way Simon and his friends were portrayed was amazing. Kudos to the actors. The whole theater was cheering, laughing, and crying with them.

Representation matters. Our kids need to see themselves on screen in movies like this.

I only have two words for this movie, and like above, it's Thank You!! i don't understand what this movie did to me, to my heart, to my life, but i can assure it was something amazing. the love story spoke directly to me and i honestly had no idea how much i needed this love story. it's not about finding yourself, it's about how to tell the world who you are. it's modern, it's timeless. which is why i tremendously related to this movie. most lgbt movies are about the struggles about coming out, not finding yourself, the negatives once you do find yourself and i loved and appreciated all those other movies but this was the first mainstream movie where he was comfortable with who he was he just needed a time and a place to tell the world his secret. hearing the entire sold-out audience in my missouri town explode into cheers, screams and clap made my heart warm up more than it has ever in any other movie. no complaints, this movie was perfect. i cannot wait to finally be able to buy it on itunes and watch it every night. the acting was a 10/10. the changes from the book all worked perfectly and made the story flow better. the high school atmosphere was spot on. again, thank you greg. thank you thank you thank you. i'm writing this on a tuesday right after getting home from my FIFTH viewing of this movie (once daily since the friday night release) i love you: love, simon.

Helmed to be one of this generation's homage to John Hughes (well-curated soundtrack, romantic comedy in a high school setting), we're not exaggerating when we say this is the movie we needed when my generation was growing up.

Back in the day, I remember there was only one gay character on mainstream media: Jack McPhee from Dawson's Creek, a football player originally brought in to play a love triangle with Dawson and Joey. Eventually he broke TV grounds when he came out as gay and was the first featured ever male gay kiss on primetime television. This was back in the year 2000.

Going further back, the other gay character I had access to was Matt Fielding from Melrose Place in the early 90s. For a show that was all about gossip and scandals, surprisingly enough it relegated Matt in the background as the token gay character, way before the term was even conceived.

Fast forward to today and we have Love, Simon, a coming-of-age movie about Simon Spier, who is gay but is unable to come out for fear of being bullied and ridiculed and ends up exchanging anonymous messages with the other gay person in his school hiding under the name Blue. When a fellow student comes across their exchanges, Simon is forced further to remain in the closet when he is blackmailed to score the guy a date with one his girl friends (ah, don't you just miss high school life?)

Whether it was intentional that aside from the lead every one else (i.e. straight) was relegated to the background as supporting characters mostly because they didn't prolong some of the conflicts enough, making it seem like coming out is that easy. Sometimes it is, sometimes it can be messy. But the point is you'll never know until you try. And even if the movie didn't get it all right, it echoes what the lead Nick Robinson said in one his interviews, it's at least a conversation starter.

Love, Simon is a very touching, heartwarming story about a relatable teenager with a big secret. This film is entirely relatable for anyone who has been in high school. Viewers don't need to share Simon's exact problems in order to enjoy this film. That's what makes it so special! The characters are all well-thought out and the story is very funny, interesting, and emotional. This is a film for everyone!

Wow...this was such a mixed experience for me. I frankly hated (no joke) roughly the first third to half of "Love, Simon," but, when more depth and consequences of actions are portrayed in the second half of the film I became engaged and loved it, up to and including the ending, which is as sweet and touching a conclusion as you hope for in a rom-com. I realize this is meant to be an homage to 80's teen films, so I tried to forgive the too-pat, flat, one-dimensional stereotypical characters frenetically surrounding the more grounded Simon (and there are far too many of them for you to have time to remember or care about), but the snarky, too-cool, and "clever" dialogue really got to me, and the film lost me for that first period. But then the consequences of Simon's selfish and, well, ultimately cruel actions toward his loving friends and family kicked in, and the resulting scenes swept me up and delivered me nicely to that sweet ending. I would likely watch this again, but with the awareness that I'd be enduring the first half (the equivalent of fingernails screeching on a blackboard) because it builds to a very satisfying second-half and conclusion. Worth viewing, but not the film I'd hoped it would be when I saw the clever and fun trailers for months prior to opening.