Why ‘Love, Simon’ is So Important

If you know anything about me whatsoever, then you may not peg me as the teen rom-com kind of gal. I’m not that girl. So it came as a surprise to me when I heard myself saying “Let’s go see ‘Love, Simon’ tonight.”                 

I came in with low expectations, expecting a movie that tugs on shallow heartstrings and vaguely follows the novel it was based on. I’ll have you know that I would have read that book in a heartbeat four years ago. It was going to be similar to The Fault in our Stars. Boy, was I wrong.

First off, this is a teen movie. It drops the f-bomb once, as any respectable PG-13 should, and contains the stereotypical teen party where half the characters get wasted and do something they may regret.

I will refrain from spoilers however. Here’s why:

The romance of the main character isn’t between him and some hot person that is so out of his league, and the person that has a crush on him isn’t obnoxious about it. Simon finds romance online, something not unique to teen books, but different from all the ones made into major motion pictures. It’s also different because not only is he falling in love with someone that he may never have met in person, he’s also gay.

A gay romance is not as uncommon as it once was, but so few movies don’t involve obscene sex scenes, extreme hatred and violence towards the LGBT+ character, or overall experiences that forces the film to be rated R, Unrated, or NC-17.

So few films focus on the romance and the more pure parts of falling in love and have LGBT+ main characters. So few LGBT+ teens and young adults get see clean content about people just like them because no one makes these films.

Why ‘Love, Simon’ is so important is because *spoiler* it has a happy ending. Let that sink in. There has never before been a happy ending to an LGBT+ film made by a major American film company. Never.

It saddens me as a member of the LGBT+ community that it took so long, but I am happy that this is our first. ‘Love, Simon’ was at times predictable, had quite a few clichés, but it was okay. The main plotline of “Who is Blue?” is not as predictable, and there is a generally caring atmosphere that feels picturesque in this idyllic Midwestern town. Plus, it had some pretty sick cinematography. Yes, I got mad about one or two inaccuracies in the film, but I let it slide because not every film has to be perfect.

‘Love, Simon’ has some high school items that are unique to it, from a blog that everyone posts on (it’s a little archaic) to a vice principal that grabs any phone out in the open to a quirky movie obsessed character. These archetypes exist in real life, but they often aren’t portrayed in teen films, and this just adds to the film.

Additionally, this movie has some parts to it that are consistent with the real world. Simon drives an early 2000s Subaru Outback (I used to have a similar car), not some bougie ride straight from the new dealership, and he doesn’t care about being popular, something different from almost every single teen movie from the last 30 years. They don’t even act as if they are misfits. They are maybe the middle class of the high school social hierarchy, but they don’t make a big deal out of it.

I will not speak to the soundtrack because it is not my style of music (from The 1975 to Bleachers), but as the resident Violent Femmes fan, I love that there is a karaoke scene to “Add It Up” added in.

Overall, this is an important film. Whether you hate teen movies, aren’t LGBT+, or just in general think it looks bad, you need to watch it. It isn’t bad, and although normalizing LGBT+ characters in movies and television has been happening slowly over the past two decades, but we aren’t there yet. Understanding what a person like Simon is going through is so important. Removing the stigma around happy gay relationships is what we need, especially in the current political climate, and ‘Love, Simon’ is the perfect conduit for this change.