Written by Elizabeth Berger And Isaac Aptaker
Directed by Greg Berlanti
Simon: "Yeah, maybe not that gay."
I did this the wrong way. You see, I watched all three seasons of sequel show, Love, Victor before ever watching this movie. It's taken me longer than I should've but I finally got around to watching this one. Better late than never I suppose.
Anyways our main character was a highschool student named Simon Spier (Nick Robinson). He's an average guy with a nice set of parents in Jack (Josh Duhamel) and Emily (Jennifer Garner) and not annoying younger sister named Nora (Talitha Bateman). So far, nothing out of the ordinary.
Simon's even got a great set of friends with Leah (Katherine Langford), Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and newcomer, Abby (Alexandra Shipp). It's all pretty normal, except that Simon had a secret he was keeping from everyone that was about to come out with no way of stopping.
Yup, Simon's gay and he's been emailing another guy nicknamed Blue. There were three candidates for Blue. Those candidates were theatre guy Cal (Miles Heizer), cute server Lyle (Joey Pollari) and handsome jock Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale). At various points, each one of them was ruled out of being Blue but we'll get back to that in a bit.
Simon's biggest worry wasn't just finding out Blue's identity but he also found himself being blackmailed by annoying fellow classmate Martin (Logan Miller). The latter wanted to date Abby and forced Simon's hand in pushing them together. It seemed like a lot of people wanted to date Abby, including Nick and he eventually did.
Unfortunately for Simon not only did Martin out him after being rejected by Abby but Simon almost lost his friends by inadvertently messing with their love lives. He eventually got them back, even got an ally with fellow gay student Ethan (Clark Moore) and had the heartwarming scenes with both parents that were lovely to watch.
Now circling back to Blue, it turned out to be Bram and the reveal was nicely handled (amongst Martin's attempts of redemption). Like all romcoms, Simon got the guy, learned some much needed life lessons and things ended on a happy note for everyone concerned.
- The movie's based on the book, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.
- In the book, Leah was bisexual as was Cal but that wasn't addressed here. Leah's crush on Simon however was given some screen time. Simon used the alias of Jacques when emailing Blue.
- Both Tony Hale and Natasha Rothwell were given the vice principal/drama teacher roles of Mr. Worth and Ms. Albright. The latter in particular got a genuinely satisfying moment upon dealing with two homophobic students.
- Drew Starkey popped up briefly in the movie. Abby dressed as Wonder Woman for a party while Simon and Leah were John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
- Standout music: Brenton Woods The Oogum Boogum Song and Jackson 5's Someday At Christmas to name a few.
- Chronology: Set in a suburb in Atlanta, Georgia and taking in the likes of Halloween and Christmas at different points.
Love, Simon, in my opinion turned out to be an excellent coming of age story. It's everything a romcom for the younger generation need it to be and it's got a slew of great performances throughout. Nick Robinson's career definitely should've blown up more from this movie.
Rating: 8 out of 10
