Film Review: Love, Simon

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Check out our film review for Love, Simon below!

Love, Simon
Run time: 109 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Greg Berlanti
Screenplay by: Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger
Producers: Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, Pouya Shahbazian and Isaac Klausner
Cast: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Miles Heizer, Keiynan Lonsdale, Logan Miller, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Tony Hale, Natasha Rothwell

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters), written by Isaac Aptaker & Elizabeth Berger (This is Us), and based on Becky Albertalli’s acclaimed novel, LOVE, SIMON is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love.

HNS Review: 

Every once in a while as a reviewer there are films that I am actually unhappy that I saw in advance. Not for the reason you might be thinking when you first hear that sentence, but because the film was so good that the fact that I can’t run out and see it again right away is pure torture.  Love Simon was one of those films. Having to wait again for my rewatch (one of what’s sure to be many) is just not fair. The film hits you in the heart in the perfect way, in a way that we haven’t quite felt by other films in recent years. It falls more closely to the John Hughes films that resonate in a profound, long term way. The way that dares to dive deeper beyond the surface, and then deeper again.

When I watched Love Simon it made me nostalgic for the good times in high school, but surprisingly nostalgic for even the bad times in high school. When I saw Leah and Simon sneaking home in fear of getting in trouble, I found myself wanting that feeling of having to sneak around again. That feeling that’s only known to teenagers at a very specific time in their lives. Love Simon deals with a lot of love and loss, heartache and heart awakenings, of the best times and the worst times. But the film doesn’t rush through all of these emotions. Every single one is felt perfectly by the audience and conveyed naturally by the filmmakers. Nothing ever felt forced or rushed, the story flowed beautifully.

Love Simon is a film that every single teenager and highschooler should see, and every single parent to a teenager or high schooler should see. It covered the raw emotions and difficulties that come along with a teenager’s coming out as gay. It also showed the family dynamics that come into play and a parent’s struggle with it – not in terms of acceptance, but rather in watching their child suffer silently and struggle with his identity and the loss of what was.

If YA adaptations were like the Oscars, I am convinced that Love Simon would win for best picture amongst a slew of other categories – and if I had it my way, it would be a total sweep across the board.

Final verdict: You. Must. See. This. Film. I’ll be shouting this from the rooftops for as long as I can.

 

LOVE, SIMON OPENS IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE MARCH 16, 2018!