LOVE, SIMON REVIEWED
“Love, Simon” is strange. The content is pretty standard, but it’s the way it was handled. The titular teen wants to come out to a guy he likes, but the process of coming out is handled via an anonymous person threatening to out him. It’s not a malicious threat, but more of a mutually assured gay destruction. Most of the girls at school know that Simon’s gay and his parents don’t really have a hang-up about it. So, what’s the big threat?
Without directly addressing it, the film treats the lack of agency as the threat. That can be a threat, but the world of this film treats the outing like it doesn’t matter to anyone but Simon. Eventually, Simon gets to find himself and his secret potential love. All the while, I’m wondering where was the journey? If it was a film about a kid learning to get over himself and embrace the people around him, that would be one thing. It’s just that the film was sold as a gay kid breaking out into his world.
20 years ago, this would’ve been way more pioneering than now. Hell, it almost hurts the movie how inconsequential the entire affair feels. That doesn’t make it any less important, it just undermines my ability to be surprised. If your big teenage moment has its own hashtag, then you’re not doing anything pioneering. Now, if you cross dress, become prom queen and then eat a dog turd onstage…I’ll take notice. Everyone wants to be Gaga and not Divine. It’s a metaphor, people.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Deleted Scenes
- Featurettes
- Commentary
A/V STATS
- 2.39:1 1080p transfer
- DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track