Love, Simon

2018 great love story

Rating: 13/20

Plot: A gay teen, who hasn't come out to anybody, befriends a mysterious gay guy at his school through email. When an annoying kid finds out, he creates some problems for Simon and his friends.

It seems that this movie is really important for some people, and that's great. I'm glad it resonates with an audience that is probably more of an intended audience than me. The movie's got a lot to love about it. The characters, though they're the types of kids with the types of friendships who could only be seen in a movie, are really easy to like. There are some really terrific moments--like a surprise dance sequence that looks like it belongs in La La Land more than a coming-of-age love story like this. A lot of the soundtrack is really good. Some characters--moms, dads, school drama club directors, Buster from Arrested Development--jump in and say just the right things at just the right moments. The movie's got an effervescence that makes it extremely watchable. There's some great humor, a lot from Tony Hale and Natasha Rothwell's vice-principal and teacher characters. "Stop pretending that trumpet is your penis. It's a rental." That might be my favorite line of the year. And I really liked the young actors, especially Nick Robinson who plays the titular character. I thought he was really good although I would have been fine with less narration.

But there are issues that really distracted me and kept me from really feeling this movie. The tagline says that "Everyone deserves a great love story." As a liberal-minded person, I completely agree with that sentiment. I'm just not totally sure this is a great love story.

At the center of the movie's problems is that the connection between the two characters doesn't feel real. Simon falls in love with the guy he's exchanging emails with, but I can't really figure out why. They have similar plights, they're both gay, and. . .well, if there's anything else revealed in those email spurts, let me know. I understand why they would connect as individuals working through nearly identical issues, but I just didn't buy them as soulmates. It was almost like Simon was desperate to fall in love with anybody--the guy blowing leaves outside his house, any of the characters he imagines could be Blue, probably anybody in that school who is not Tony Hale or female.

The unrealistic, overly-written-for characters didn't help either. You've seen these character types in countless movies before. They seem to be characters who have wandered into a 2018 movie from 80's television shows about adolescents and schools, and I don't mean that in a good way. Schools don't really look like this. Principals don't act like Tony Hale. Teachers don't talk like Nathasha Rothwell talks to students. Bullies certainly don't act like the bullies in this movie. And the kids' friendships, though I can't say it's not fun to watch, just don't feel like friendships that could really exist. It's probably true that the caricatures made the movie a little breezier or a little more vibrant, but it also hurt the story's credibility.

A huge problem for me was the story's main conflict. This might be a little spoilery, so you can skip this paragraph if you want. There's a boy who finds out about Simon's secret and screenshots his emails. He then uses those to blackmail Simon into getting something he wants. I just didn't really buy that this particular character, though he was annoying in that way an 80's television show can make a kid annoying, would go about things the way he did, and I didn't really buy any of Simon's actions because of all that.

Though I think gay teens probably deserve a better love story, this is still an entertaining enough movie. It's also probably worth checking out just because you get the added satisfaction of knowing that this is the type of thing that makes Mike Pence's blood boil. That's something.