Viewers love reality of “Love, Simon”

The new movie, Love, Simon premiered March 16, 2018 and was directed by Greg Berlanti.

The new movie, “Love, Simon” premiered March 16, 2018 and was directed by Greg Berlanti.

Madison Parola, Features Editor

 

Love stories are always a favorite in the movie theaters, but what we don’t often see are two male characters falling in love.

“Love, Simon” premiered in theaters on March 16 and shows the love story of two boys while focusing on Simon’s journey of coming out, which was not done voluntarily. With how well “Love, Simon” did in theaters, we can only hope that this is just the beginning of more romance movies with LGBT couples.

This movie was based on an extremely popular book called “Simon vs. The HomoSapien Agenda” written by Becky Albertalli. It tells the story about a high school boy who has a big secret– he’s gay.

But before getting to that secret, the movie starts with describing the life of 17-year-old Simon Spiers, who drinks way too much iced coffee with friends, has his morning breakfasts with his family and goes to school. Simon is a teenager living the high school experience.

One day, though, a post by user “Blue” with a fake email account announces Simon is gay on the school gossip website. Simon decides to create a fake email to contact “Blue” and share his experiences of being a closeted teenager.

This all goes wrong when Simon gets blackmailed. Martin, a boy in the same musical as Simon, gains access to the emails, and because Martin likes Simon’s friend Abby, Martin threatens to release the emails unless Simon helps him with Abby. From there, we follow Simon’s journey as he handles the blackmail, as he gets outed and as he falls in love.

Greg Berlanti, the director of the film, did an astounding job making the movie relatable for teenagers. The environment and way students act in the movie is similar to an actual school, which was very important for this film.

“I feel like [“Love, Simon”] is more realistic to what kids actually go through emotionally,” said junior Natalie Gray.

The film wouldn’t have been able to reach a younger audience if it wasn’t using authentic material.

“This movie was very impactful,” junior Rachel Gonzalez said. “There were some moments when you could literally feel the frustration, anxiety or happiness as if you were the character yourself. To me, the message was that no matter what happens in high school, it is not going to dictate the rest of your life. It may seem like a big deal now, like the end of the world, but in reality you probably won’t remember it in 10 years.”

The ratings for this movie have been quite high; Rotten Tomatoes has a rating of 92 percent, and the LGBT community has been supporting this movie with reviewers stating they wish they had had a movie like this when they were growing up and trying to come out.

On Twitter, multiple teenagers have talked about how going to see the movie with their parents have opened their parents’ eyes about the process of coming out and how it affects their children.

While such reviews may give the impression that the movie is intense, this rom-com was funny, sentimental and truly touching for anyone sitting in the theater.

It is true that in the real world not everyone has the same situation as Simon: a well-off home and a circle of friends. Even though this movie is not an accurate portrayal for everyone’s experiences, it was a good movie that showed one boy’s coming out story and how everyone deserves to be represented on screen.

After all, everyone deserves a love story, and the ones portrayed in the theaters shouldn’t always be the story of a white man and woman even if that’s what we have grown to know. Hopefully, “Love, Simon” isn’t the only film that breaks this trend.

This movie tugged at my heart multiple times, and I can’t deny that by the end of the movie, I was extremely happy for Simon. This movie did a great job with showing the struggles throughout his journey but ending the story that left the entire audience satisfied.

Gonzalez said, “I would recommend this movie because it was a surreal experience watching it in the theatre with a bunch of other people– there were moments when the whole theatre erupted in gasps, in high-pitched squeals of excitement and laughter. It was overall a “feel-good” movie, and everyone left the theatre smiling.”

I encourage you to go and watch this movie because it will have a positive impact on your life.