by Noah Schiminowski
“Love, Simon” is a coming-of-age story about a young man dealing with the pressures of accepting himself and embracing his sexuality. Young love is difficult to navigate, especially as a teenager, but being gay and in the closet puts another obstacle in Simon’s path.
Overall, “Love, Simon” is a beautiful movie that brought tears to my eyes.
He spends the duration of the movie trying to figure out the identity of an anonymous young man, who calls himself Blue, that he’s been sending emails to and gradually falling in love with — all while avoiding being found out by his peers.
Watching the movie in the theater was an experience in and of itself. I was happy to see diversity in the other moviegoers: there was a small group of older women in the back, some young girls with their parents and, naturally, a handful of same-sex couples.
Being in the LGBT community myself, I found so many things Simon went through to be wonderfully relatable. It was refreshing to watch him navigate his school’s halls, desperately scanning for anyone who was like him and meeting less-than-friendly glances in the process as well as straight people that wanted to be supportive but didn’t quite know how.
Although my identity differs from Simon’s, it was a fantastic experience to watch someone within my community go through the struggles that all LGBT kids go through — the feelings of terror, shame and rejection, but also of elation, acceptance and most importantly, love.
Overall, “Love, Simon” is a beautiful movie that brought tears to my eyes. If you enjoy movies about reckless high school students trying to find one another only to find themselves in the process, this is the film for you.
