Love, Simon (2018)

When E.M. Forster wrote his gay love story Maurice, he insisted it have a happy ending. “A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows.” Happy endings have often been denied gay love stories. Growing up I saw tragic ending after tragic ending in love stories between two men. Even today the highly acclaimed gay stories (Brokeback Mountain, Call Me By Your Name) often end in loss. The homosexual love story often is rife with tragedy in the heterosexist world we live in so this makes sense. So there is something remarkably subversive about a happy ending in a gay love story. Forster was right. A happy ending is imperative.

Love, Simon is modeled after the traditional teen romantic comedies we've seen a thousand times in the heterosexual context. Part of what makes Love, Simon so remarkable is the way it takes that popular model and upends it to make it about young queer men (queer men of colour mostly too). This story, closely adapted from the charmingly accessible young adult novel, is as funny, as engaging, as irresistible as the mainstream heterosexual romcoms we are so familiar with. In fact, in many ways it surpasses those by the very nature of queering those stories, it introduces us to new ideas, new wrinkles, things we don't get out of regular romantic comedies.

Director Craig Berlanti does a wonderful job of adapting the novel and telling this charming story. He makes it easily relateable to all. Love, Simon works so well because of how well Berlanti makes his story accessible. It's funny. It's emotional. Yes, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and come out smiling. Simon is the idealized coming out tale. But it's marvelous in that idealization. It is the dream most queer people share about being a part of their families, communities, and finding that romantic connection that movies tell us we all are entitled to. Only in this film the boy meets boy and boy gets boy while their friends and family cheer them on.

Simon's parents say the things parents should say. Simon's friends act the way friends should act. There is justice when Simon is wronged. Simon lives in a world where his identity is affirmed. It may still not be like that for all gay kids growing up, but it is more and more. And Love, Simon puts it out there for all to see. It is a big glowing sign saying gay boys get to feel romance too, get to be loved by their parents, get to be themselves.

Love, Simon is glorious in its simple, lovely affirmation of teen romance, told from the point of view of those who don't often get to see their love stories told. Two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows.

Love, Simon
Starring: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Keiynan Lonsdale, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Logan Miller, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Tony Hale, Natasha Rothwell
Director: Greg Berlanti
Writers: Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger