Greg Berlanti’s 2018 film Love, Simon tells the story of a young adolescent male, Simon, who keeps his sexuality a secret from his family and friends and only begins talking about it when he and an anonymous student under the alias “Blue” begin emailing each other. Unfortunately, Simon leaves his secret email inbox open in the library and is discovered by Martin, who blackmails Simon into trying to set him up with Abby, the new girl in school. Simon, of course, is upset by this but cannot risk his secret getting out before he wants it to. To make matters worse, Simon’s best friend Nick is in love with Abby, and Simon’s other best friend Leah is in love with Simon! Wow, tiring, huh?
Not so much. It may sound dumb, but that complicated love polygon is just “high school drama.” Eventually, this polygon blows up in Simon’s face when Martin exposes Simon’s secret to the school after getting frustrated that his pursuit of Abby is failing. Simon’s inner conflict and forceful reveal are definitely the most interesting aspects of the movie. Also, the reveal of the mysterious “Blue” at the end of the film is extremely clever thanks to some small foreshadowing, but it ultimately felt too convenient.
One thing I do want to highlight is the attention to detail in Simon’s room. I loved looking around the frame in search of more pop culture details every time we revisited Simon’s room. From Funko Pop figures to musical interests and an assortment of random papers, Simon’s room definitely felt real and not, well, like a set.
Love, Simon was your normal coming-of-age story with a not terribly interesting and fairly predictable band of characters. While watching the movie, each of the supporting characters was given some interesting traits (Martin’s obsession with magic, Abby’s shaky family history), but these traits were never revisited or expanded upon. I definitely wanted more from the characters but was just given some passable dialogue and expected interactions. This is not to say that watching the film is an unenjoyable experience by any means! I would definitely recommend taking a trip to watch this movie; the humor is quirky, the conversations between the characters feel true to high school, and the storyline is easy to follow.
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