I enjoy coming of age movies. The teen years can be hard for some and the best years for others. Here we have a tale of a young man trying to come to terms with his identity as a gay man while also dealing with senior year of high school. For those of us that didn't grow up in the age of smartphones and social media, it's a glimpse into a new world that is so common to teens today. Gen Z is truly a different generation with all new struggles and hardships. This has a lot of aspects that most coming of age movies have, so if you liked movies like Lady Bird, The Way Way Back, or Juno, you will probably enjoy this movie (although I didn't think this was as good as any of those). Plus, if you like The Bleachers, there are like three songs and an extra from Jack Antonoff! I'm a big Bleachers fan, so YAY!
Love, Simon follows the titular character, Simon, on his journey to 'coming out' as a young gay man trying to get through high school. Another gay kid gets outed on their local 'gossip blog', so he writes anonymously to him. Simon finds comfort knowing that there's someone else out there going through the same issues. But soon, things start to unravel. Someone finds out his secret and uses it against Simon. His friends get caught in his troubles and things just keep getting harder and harder.
Simon is an average kid, just trying to find his way through life. But he makes some decisions that weren't exactly endearing to me. When so much is riding on the main character, it's tough to enjoy the movie when the story takes a negative direction. Friends got royally screwed over and Simon doesn't come out very clean. That can add character to a movie, but for me, it didn't. Simon just was pretty selfish and never really grew or learned. I feel for his struggle. I think most people have times that the struggle with feeling alone is overwhelming. I liked the parents and his little sister. Really, everyone around him was pretty awesome. His obstacle was that he felt different and didn't know how (or if) to reveal his secret.
I liked the movie as a whole, but I didn't like that Simon was probably my least favorite character. Ok, there was one or two way worse, but even they were somewhat redeemed. For me, Simon was just not super likable. He didn't really have anything about him that made him unique, which was part of the point. He could be anyone. But even though you could relate, it was hard to admire. I look stories about people that stand out. And most of the other characters were the ones that really did that. Also, the love story aspect seemed forced. Maybe that works for a young love, but it didn't feel real to me. It was more about convenience than love, it felt.
In all, the movie is worth seeing, but I can't give it high praise. It was pretty good, just not as great as it could have been.