“Love, Simon” is one of the best movies about teenagers in high school made for and about them, anyone whoever was a teenager and certainly adults of today. John Hughes made successful movies reflecting on teenagers in high school in the 1980s and though teenagers have some things in common in every generation the 21^st Century highschooler is remarkably different.

Adolescents of yesterday tackled puberty, lack of confidence, secrets, parents, first loves, identity, independence, cars and popularity just as adolescents of today do but today they are attached to laptop computers and cell phones. Yes there are still the jocks, mean girls, dweebs, girls who doubt themselves when they can’t get boys to look at them just like the guys who can’t get a date.

What makes “Love, Simon” exceptional is that Simon is everything that others teens are but he is gay. Over the years I have read and heard thousands of ‘coming out’ stories and each one is unique. There are also many myths involving the process, one being that every parent accepts their children for who they are.

This movie is the first by a major Hollywood studio which centers on a gay teenager coming out with all the comedy, drama and romance that involves plus a few risks such as blackmail that can also happen. At 17 Simon is the friend everyone wants to have, the big brother a younger sister looks up to, parents every kid wishes theirs were and, yet, at 17, he hasn’t told anyone he is gay.

For those who can identify with Simon and those who may not know what someone who is ‘different’ goes through during their teens in high school I don’t want to say much more about the insightful screenplay by writers Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker and the direction by Greg Berlanti who handles an understated scene between Simon and his mother while all 3 have a few missteps like two characters having too much screen time plus taking up time on a school production of “Cabaret” which doesn’t advance the story nor challenge that a high school in Georgia would allow the show to be put on.

Nick Robinson is tall, thin, good-looking, average student and plays a very believable 17-year-old touching Simon while showing the awkwardness of a teenager trying to dance in a show or in his imagination and not succeeding. Jennifer Garner as his mother, Talitha Bateman as his sister are impressive and Josh Duhamel as his father is ‘adorable’!  (You have to see the film to understand how/why a grown man can be adorable.)

Alexander Shipp, Katherine Langford, Miles Heizer, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jorge Lendeborg, Drew Starkey, Joey Pollari and Mackenzie Lintz as friends and acquaintances of Simon are all very believable in their roles.

Logan Miller is obnoxious, too obnoxious, as a student who blackmails Simon regarding the latter’s love affair with an unknown Internet gay student calling himself “Blue”. Is Miller’s character written as obnoxious as written and directed or did the director not control him? Another annoying character is Tony Hale as the Vice Principal and makes me wonder if this sort of adult is as visible in many schools. An outstanding scene stealer, in a positive way, is Natasha Rothwell as a drama teacher.

An additional dividend for the audience is trying to figure out who “Blue” is through the screenwriter does through in a red herring regarding him!

“Love, Simon, is a must-see comedy/drama/romantic film that I hope is remembered 9-10 months from now at award time.

Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykHeGtN4m94