[8]

Nick Robinson (Jurassic World, Kings of Summer) stars as a closeted high school student who carries on an anonymous email relationship with another closeted student, all while trying to gather the courage to ‘come out’ to his family and friends. There have been many ‘coming out’ stories in independent cinema, but they’re usually sad, dreary affairs. Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti (TV’s Everwood and The Flash) and based on a book by Becky Albertalli, is a wide studio release that may be an indication of progress in that it keeps the tone light, funny, and romantic, but without sacrificing a few genuinely emotional moments.

Robinson is both cute and charming in the lead — he carries the movie beautifully. The large supporting cast fight for screen time, but Clark Moore is perhaps the most memorable of the bunch. Moore plays an effeminite, already-out gay classmate who uses his wits to stand up to bullies. Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel get one or two moments apiece, and Talitha Eliana Bateman really impressed me as Simon’s little sister. I also have to single out the movie’s soundtrack, which contains a number of great songs that I immediately had to download after seeing the movie.

Love, Simon serves as a terrific broad overview of one of the most emotional experiences a young gay person can ever go through. While it only scrapes the surface of many issues, it still manages to hit very close to home for me. Okay. It totally fucking wrecked me, actually. But only because my own experience stands in such stark contrast to Simon’s. Not everyone is lucky enough to come out of ‘coming out’ as unscathed as Simon — but they should be. I pray Love, Simon is a sign of the times and the shape of things to come.