I
actually saw this film on its opening weekend, but it took me a while to get
around to writing a review for it – been busy.
However, don’t take that as a lack of enthusiasm for or enjoyment of the
movie. On the contrary, this is a
well-made, conventional teen rom-com, which in the case of this film, is most
certainly a great thing! (A few premise
spoilers.)
Simon’s
ordinary life of high school, friends, and hanging out is thrown for a loop
when he catches wind of a closeted gay kid at his school, known only by the online
handle Blue. Unbeknownst to anyone in his
life, Simon is in exactly the same situation, and he strikes up an anonymous
email correspondence with Blue. Over the
course of their emails, Simon opens up to another person about himself for the
first time and also begins to fall hard for his mystery kindred spirit. However, his privacy, sense of social safety,
and burdgeoning friendship/maybe-more with Blue are all put in jeopardy when a
classmate discovers Simon’s emails and threatens to out him if Simon won’t help
the guy get with one of Simon’s female friends.
I really,
really enjoyed this movie. Just
generally, it’s a strong film with good comedy, sweet potential romance, and
some compelling drama mixed in. The
movie does a nice job with the ongoing mystery of Blue’s identity – I like the
recurring device of Simon imagining him as different people as Simon makes his
way from one possible-Blue to the next. All
the actors are turning in fine work – Nick Robinson is excellent as Simon, as
are Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel, who feel very genuine as his
parents. Also, special shoutout to a
pair of grown-up scene-stealers in the school scenes, Tony Hale as the
trying-too-hard (vice?) principal and Natasha Rothwell as the
where-did-my-life-go-wrong? drama teacher.
The movie additionally features Keiynan Lonsdale (lately Kid Flash, but
I remember him as Uriah from the Divergent
films) and Alexandra Shipp, the new Storm in X-Men.
It’s
quite polished, and a good portion of the plot covers very well-trodden teen
rom-com fare, which, as I said, is a definite note in its favor. That might feel weird to say, and ordinarily,
I wouldn’t be so eager for such conventional beats and tropes. But because this teen rom-com is about an
all-American gay boy, I welcome how ordinary it feels. Certainly, Simon is deeply closeted and takes
the threat of outing very seriously – I don’t mean that the movie doesn’t mine
drama from his sexuality. What I mean is
that this really is a true teen rom-com – almost an old-fashioned one, with
hints of a John Hughes feel to it – and Simon’s feelings for Blue get the full
treatment as such. This isn’t a tragic
LGBTQ story that ends in suicide, gay-bashing, or a loving couple kept apart
for mournful reasons. This is a very
Hollywood romantic comedy, with a little added drama, and I like that LGBTQ
cinema has a mainstream movie like this for queer kids to watch and root
for. (On that note, it’s positively
adorable to watch Simon interact with his various suspected Blues. The moment he starts to think he might have
figured it out, he goes totally smitten and suffers a complete loss of game –
so sweet.)
And on a
personal level, the film just really resonates with me. As an aromantic asexual, I can’t relate to
Simon’s longing to be with the boy he likes without harassment, but I absolutely
know how it feels to be closeted. I
remember the paranoia of being discovered, that utter fight-or-flight response –
it just kills me when he’s first confronted with his secret, and he can’t even
bring himself to say the word “gay.” And
I know the enormity of coming out to my family, how, even as I reassured myself
that they would still love me, I was all but paralyzed by fear because I couldn’t
know for sure until I did it and the stakes were just. So. High. I fully admit to crying in the theater over
moments that hit home so closely.
Warnings
Thematic
elements, sexual references, swearing, and drinking.
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