Review of Love, Simon (2018) by Savvyed — 25 Apr 2018

Love, Simon is a romantic comedy/coming-of-age story about a high school student who is struggling to admit to his friends that he is gay. He decides to live out his grade schools years without telling anyone until he sees an anonymous post on social media from someone at his high school with the codename, “Blue”, who is also gay.

The two engage in anonymous correspondence over the course of the semester. Meanwhile, Simon tries to navigate high school, deepen friendships, and fight off bullies all while trying to keep his secret a secret.

Nick Robinson, the actor who portrays Simon, is able to make Simon a loveable character and bring the audience into Simon’s world by being charismatic and endearing. The movie does not make Simon’s character only revolve around his being gay.

We are able to see much more into Simon’s life with friends and family, as well as, his personality. This allows the audience to connect to Simon regardless of their sexuality. It is easy to relate to him because of the fact that he is just trying to find the courage to tell the truth about something.

Everyone has experienced being in an awkward situation with friends or having to confess something to a parent, before and these kinds of scenarios are all throughout the scene making it hard to not find something in common with Simon and his life.

Watching this film takes anyone back to their high school years, but also enlightens older viewers to the lives of students in the age of technology. This film checks all the boxes of the perfect romantic comedy.

In Simon’s attempt to figure out who the anonymous “Blue” is at his school, he works through believing that he has figured out the identity of Blue then realises he was wrong, then “figures it out” again, and realizes he was wrong until he finally finds the guy and they live out their happy ending.

This mimics the classic --boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back -- plot of heterosexual romantic comedies. This film is well rounded. It has funny moments. It has its heartwarming moments between Simon and his family.

Then, it has its sad moments. Yet, the film does have slight downfalls. For example, in one scene, it seems as though Simon’s friends overreact about something Simon did. Actually, after a second thought, that may just be a portrayal of how teenagers let their emotions cloud their judgement.

There also did not seem to be enough justice against the antagonist after he did something irredeemable. Though, overall, the writing and the acting from the cast made Love, Simon an enjoyable watch.