Review of Love, Simon (2018) by Wayne K — 02 Nov 2018

A film of simple messages but profound beauty and emotional sincerity, Love, Simon covers the familiar territory of living with a secret and fearing its discovery. The performances are stellar across the board, and the film is written with such sensitivity and relevance that it never feels artificial at any points, and the conflicts which arise are organic and make complete sense, as opposed to being there simply to pad the runtime.

I think what I liked most about it is that, while many of the genre's cliches are present, the film is clever enough to demonstrate how unnecessary they are. For example, when Simon comes out to his friends, they confront him about why he lied to them, and he tells them the truth.

He doesn't hold anything back, doesn't give vague responses and doesn't simply stare off and say nothing, all things that lesser movies commonly do. At its heart it's a film about struggling to accept who you are, and while it might lag in its final act, the subject matter is always treated with respect, and the dynamics between the central characters is filled with love and tenderness.

There's flashes of humour, social commentary and clever observations sprinkled throughout, and its uplifting to see how well the film did at the box office, especially as it could have slipped right by the moviegoing public and vanished into obscurity.

But I'm very, very happy that it didn't.