Love is Love is Love, Simon

“Love, Simon” was the average coming-of-age story that nipped at the hearts at pretty much everyone who sat in the theater. Now, although it was aimed at a teenage demographic, it was evidently so much more than just a rom com. It provided the unspoken narrative of generations of LGBT+ teens that are not able to feel comfortable with simply being their true selves or not even being able to speak out.

Based off of Becky Albertalli’s 2015 bestselling novel, “Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda”, “Love, Simon” follows Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) as he journeys through his high school experience, all the while being in the closet and maintaining an anonymous online romance with a fellow closeted gay.

The entire journey of the movie was a comedic, relatable, and sometimes sad trip. There’s the fear and the anger of being blackmailed with your own sexuality along with trying to being able to come out on your own terms. You’ll catch yourself laughing and maybe even singing along with Simon when he’s drunk for the first time, and just so happens to find himself standing on the living room table with a karaoke mic in his hand.

The atmosphere in the theater is thick and you can hear the tears falling when Simon comes out, or even when he’s outed at school. Simon’s whole life crumbles before his eyes, and many in audience are able to relate to it because they have lived it or are currently living it. Even when Simon’s family wholeheartedly accepts him, you can feel the emotion; when Simon finally meets the guy he’s been emailing, there’s cheers and clapping and everyone is genuinely happy.

But not every gay teen gets that happy ending.

“Love, Simon” is such an inspiring movie because it showcases what it’s like to be an average gay teen, and especially the trials and tribulations we’ve gone through from simply attempting to be ourselves. Of course it doesn’t show everything, like the bullying and harassment that can be way worse than just two schoolmates mocking you in front of the entire cafeteria, but it’s still a movie that generations before us are wishing they had when they were younger.

Overall, “Love, Simon” is incredible and astonishing, and it is so incomprehensible how the narrative is able to tap into what it means to be young and exploring who you are. Even more so it gives an actual gay character; this isn’t the main protagonist’s best friend, or the sassy token gay, but a fully fleshed character that is average and understandable and doesn’t have to scream “I’m gay!” to make you understand him. It finally, finally, gives the LGBT+ community what they’ve always wanted from a movie. Something that isn’t so dark and sexualized or completely overdramatic, but a movie that easily explains our adolescent lives and doesn’t make us feel like some alien outcasts.

“Love, Simon” was nothing less than amazing, and I recommend going to see it multiple times in a row. It’s a definite, huge “thank you” for putting out a movie that can easily relate to such a widely ignored demographic, and give an understanding to what it’s like to just be us.