![]() ![]() ![]() At one point, he refers to another man as “fruity,” and you can see Simon straining not to flinch the film nails the fleeting terror of moments like these, when loved ones disappoint.Īt school, Simon rolls with a close-knit crew: childhood bestie Leah ( 13 Reasons Why’s excellent Katherine Langford), soccer player Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and artsy new girl Abby (Alexandra Shipp). Mom is a therapist and bleeding-heart liberal, while Dad is a jovial guy’s guy - sensitive enough, but not above the occasional casually homophobic comment. Simon lives with his parents ( Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) and younger sister ( Talitha Bateman) in an affluent Atlanta suburb. “I’m just like you, except I have one huge-ass secret,” 16-year-old Simon (a winning Nick Robinson) tells us via voiceover in the opening minutes, as he eyes a studly groundskeeper wielding a leaf-blower (paging Dr. Taye Diggs to Star in Greg Berlanti-Produced CW Pilot (Exclusive) It’s as if Berlanti is daring audiences to find anything objectionable in what amounts to a thoroughly family-friendly queer film. The film looks and sounds like so many other mainstream, John Hughes-nostalgic high-school-coms you’ve seen on both big and small screens, just with one difference: The hero is gay. And while there inevitably will be grumbles from those who would have preferred a grittier portrayal of the gay adolescent experience, Love, Simon’s vanilla-ness is also what makes it culturally significant, and even slightly subversive. If any LGBT-themed pic has a shot at conquering red-state hearts - a long shot - it may be this one aside from a relatively chaste same-sex kiss and a reference to “butt sex,” it’s a very wholesome PG-13. How Love, Simon fares commercially will, in part, be a test of whether Americans outside urban “bubbles” are interested in stories of ordinary gay folks looking for love. Historically, the LGBT films that have raked in the most money are the ones that boasted attention-grabbing hooks (“gay cowboy movie” Brokeback Mountain) or conformed to certain gay narratives the public was comfortable with (dying of AIDS in Philadelphia South Beach flamboyance in The Birdcage). But taken on its own, limited terms, Love, Simon is also a charmer - warm, often funny and gently touching, tickling rather than pummeling your tear ducts. In other words, it’s an expertly carved chunk of cheese. ![]() The movie was directed by Greg Berlanti (the prolific writer-producer behind Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters, The Flash and more), penned by a pair of This Is Us scribes and produced by the people who brought you The Fault in Our Stars. ![]()
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