Love, Simon (2018)

I watched this film before, when it first came out in the cinema, and I walked out crying and laughing in equal measure. The story is about a teenage boy called Simon, who's hiding a secret from his family - he's gay. When I heard about this film, I wasn't instantly excited, as I've read a lot of books and seen a lot of films that fall into the category of 'diverse lit', and one of the pitfalls of this genre is that, oftentimes, the plot is lost among the writer's need to make it as diverse as possible. 'Love, Simon' does not fall into this trap. I think there's a character for everyone to relate to in this, and everyone's personalities are well-rounded. Simon is the perfect lead, simply because he isn't perfect. There's no true antagonist in the film. The closest that it has to one redeems himself on occasions. I thought this was realistic. In real life, people are never really good, nor are they necessarily bad, especially not teenagers. This was one of my favorite parts of this film.

As well as the characters being realistic, it's full of quotable lines, and perfectly captures the humor of the younger generation. It's got tons of pop culture references, and the soundtrack appeals to people with a more retro taste, which is definitely one its best little quirks for me.

The plot was something that was very well imagined. Rather than just being 'a gay love story', it succeeds on its own merits by giving us the added complication of Simon not knowing his love interest in real life. All he knows is that they are from the same school as him, which leads him to suspect many different people he knows as being the mysterious 'Blue' that he's been talking to. It's fun seeing these scenes imagined by Simon, and it's a brilliant perspective to have, as the audience don't know who exactly it is either. The way that the media is dealt with in this film is also very realistic. In fact, this whole film is very realistic. Except for one thing.

There were some scenes in this film that got on my nerves for one reason: they just aren't realistic. Some big points in the film are given comic relief where it isn't needed, and while I don't mind a little bit of joking around, some parts of this can be quite throwaway, and things aren't made enough of a big deal. Some of his parents' reactions are deliberately overacted to make them funnier. This can be annoying at times, however it doesn't detract too badly from an overall brilliant film. I would recommend this film for anyone looking to watch something that breaks the rules just a little.