Love, Simon (2018) - What's your gay agenda?
It's very hard to be fair on Love, Simon when it is so clearly a coming-of-age movie for teenagers because I want to hold cinema about LGBT youth to such a different standard. That's wrong on my part, because gay film should be allowed to be phenomenal and terrible and also just mediocre. At the same time, as a Vocally Bisexual Woman with my own complicated views surrounding representation and stereotype, I want to see great media about my own story and the stories of my friends and the stories of other people who deserve to see themselves in the things they consume. In many aspects, Love, Simon was successful! As a story of a gay youth working out high school, it is deft in its handling of sexuality and relationships. Sadly, as a teen high school movie, it's more than just awkward.
The plot of the movie is not unfamiliar. We're introduced to the eponymous Simon, played by Nick Robinson (not, thankfully, the gross games journalist of the same name), who tells us that he is completely normal and like us in every way except in his keeping of a secret - his being gay. So, just completely like me then? I must admit, that got my first scoff of the movie, because it hinted at something that I ended up taking away from the screening: a lot of the time, this felt like a Gay Movie For Straight People. There were times I felt super alienated from this movie, and by all accounts, I should be its target audience! Simon, who is Secretly Gay, begins emailing another closeted kid from their school's anonymous confessions blog (I guess schools have those now). Who could his mysterious pen pal, alias Blue, be?
In the same way as someone's sexuality does not define their character, Robinson does a great job of portraying Simon as gay but also a pretty boring teenager. There were multiple times in his email exchanges where I found myself wishing we were watching Blue's story instead, to see more of interplay of Judaism and homosexuality (I need way more of that in film for very selfish reasons and I'm being spoiled with this and Call Me By Your Name). He also captures quite deftly the subtle discomfort with being closeted and hearing constant low-level homophobia. Almost all of the acting and writing to do with sexuality are managed will grace and don't feel like dropping weights on the audience.
"Surely in a movie about a gay teenager, the handling of his sexuality is the most important thing," you might be thinking. I've been thinking about it in the hours since I saw the movie. If what I want is LGBT cinema that crosses genre, I want good handling of sexuality to be a baseline. I shouldn't be thrilled when someone talks eloquently about their feelings, or when a same sex kiss isn't ultra sexualised, or when a gay character doesn't died.The problem with this movie, for me, was that as a teenage high school movie, it fell a little flat. The writing was underwhelming, especially in exposition, and felt a bit out of touch with a high school environment (although I also might just be out of touch with that). Some things are great, but some things are atrocious. There's a character who is inarguably shitty, but he does things that the movie occasionally cues us in to think are good - like pushing an uncomfortable girl to talk about her parents' divorce - and it's not in the acting, because he's great. I was personally made to feel really out of sorts by a final declaration of love involving a ferris wheel and a literal gathered crowd, and as someone who's had people clap and whoop while I've kissed someone, is more fetishisation really needed?
The main sign I had for this not being the best movie for me was that I was re-writing it in my head. I knew that the movie wouldn't outdo itself and make Simon's best friend, played by Katherine Langford, anything but in love with him - but it would have been far more compelling and equally coherent had she been LGBT and going through a similar struggle (apparently the books are more upfront with this). There were countless times I made notes in my head of little tweaks I would have made to give the story a little bit more realism from the teen side and a few more layers from the gay side. I wanted more for the women in the movie, and my god, I wanted more of the surprise Tony Hale vice principal. I found myself cringing at things, and wanting to feel more deeply invested than I did.
Perhaps I projected too much on to Call Me By Your Name (review in the drafts), and was all burnt out for this. Don't get me wrong: the acting is great, the soundtrack is pretty decent, there's a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, and portions of the movie are wonderful. I might have wanted more, but I always will. It was a great step in the right direction for the diversification of LGBT cinema, because gay teenagers deserve frothy rom coms too.
Rating: 6.5/10 - I wanted more, but I'm nigh on impossible to please.
The plot of the movie is not unfamiliar. We're introduced to the eponymous Simon, played by Nick Robinson (not, thankfully, the gross games journalist of the same name), who tells us that he is completely normal and like us in every way except in his keeping of a secret - his being gay. So, just completely like me then? I must admit, that got my first scoff of the movie, because it hinted at something that I ended up taking away from the screening: a lot of the time, this felt like a Gay Movie For Straight People. There were times I felt super alienated from this movie, and by all accounts, I should be its target audience! Simon, who is Secretly Gay, begins emailing another closeted kid from their school's anonymous confessions blog (I guess schools have those now). Who could his mysterious pen pal, alias Blue, be?
In the same way as someone's sexuality does not define their character, Robinson does a great job of portraying Simon as gay but also a pretty boring teenager. There were multiple times in his email exchanges where I found myself wishing we were watching Blue's story instead, to see more of interplay of Judaism and homosexuality (I need way more of that in film for very selfish reasons and I'm being spoiled with this and Call Me By Your Name). He also captures quite deftly the subtle discomfort with being closeted and hearing constant low-level homophobia. Almost all of the acting and writing to do with sexuality are managed will grace and don't feel like dropping weights on the audience.
"Surely in a movie about a gay teenager, the handling of his sexuality is the most important thing," you might be thinking. I've been thinking about it in the hours since I saw the movie. If what I want is LGBT cinema that crosses genre, I want good handling of sexuality to be a baseline. I shouldn't be thrilled when someone talks eloquently about their feelings, or when a same sex kiss isn't ultra sexualised, or when a gay character doesn't died.The problem with this movie, for me, was that as a teenage high school movie, it fell a little flat. The writing was underwhelming, especially in exposition, and felt a bit out of touch with a high school environment (although I also might just be out of touch with that). Some things are great, but some things are atrocious. There's a character who is inarguably shitty, but he does things that the movie occasionally cues us in to think are good - like pushing an uncomfortable girl to talk about her parents' divorce - and it's not in the acting, because he's great. I was personally made to feel really out of sorts by a final declaration of love involving a ferris wheel and a literal gathered crowd, and as someone who's had people clap and whoop while I've kissed someone, is more fetishisation really needed?
The main sign I had for this not being the best movie for me was that I was re-writing it in my head. I knew that the movie wouldn't outdo itself and make Simon's best friend, played by Katherine Langford, anything but in love with him - but it would have been far more compelling and equally coherent had she been LGBT and going through a similar struggle (apparently the books are more upfront with this). There were countless times I made notes in my head of little tweaks I would have made to give the story a little bit more realism from the teen side and a few more layers from the gay side. I wanted more for the women in the movie, and my god, I wanted more of the surprise Tony Hale vice principal. I found myself cringing at things, and wanting to feel more deeply invested than I did.
Perhaps I projected too much on to Call Me By Your Name (review in the drafts), and was all burnt out for this. Don't get me wrong: the acting is great, the soundtrack is pretty decent, there's a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, and portions of the movie are wonderful. I might have wanted more, but I always will. It was a great step in the right direction for the diversification of LGBT cinema, because gay teenagers deserve frothy rom coms too.
Rating: 6.5/10 - I wanted more, but I'm nigh on impossible to please.
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