Occasionally, a film comes along that ticks so many boxes on the what makes a movie awesome list that it is hard to know where to start the praise and when to wrap up the salute to something truly special. With the arrival of Love Simon on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download, home video fans have an insanely entertaining effort that will please a multitude of audiences for a myriad of reasons.
Love Simon is a coming of age film that is timeless in the rarest of ways. Growing up, circa 2018, is much different than it was for all previous generations. Yet, Greg Berlanti’s film manages to make each and every soul witnessing the director’s magical movie mentally hark back to the days when we were all coming of age. Love Simon is also the quintessential high school movie that works by not painting its characters as teenage cardboard cut-outs and instead presents an ensemble of rich, layered kids who are relatable in every sense of the word. Love Simon is also a romantic comedy of the highest order. It does something unbelievably rare in that it manages to get its audiences’ hearts racing and heads laughing in a manner that is uniquely universal—amazing considering the protagonist is gay and finding his first true love is much more complicated than the usual pedantic boy meets girl trope.
Yes, Love Simon is a coming out film that impeccably captures that important moment in any gay person’s life with such grace, candor, humor and heart. It is a remarkable achievement. Everything that Simon (Nick Robinson) goes through is relatable due to his being a teenager, but also because he is a newbie to the landscape of amour.
Simon is just like any other teenager. He has his group of close friends that he confides in, finds joy with and each serves as a pillar to the others in a manner that is something we all hope to have in our lives. His closest friend, Leah (Katherine Langford), and him go back to elementary school. They embody the phrase BFF in its purest form. Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale) is a character that has the DNA of every close pal we could all aspire to have in our circle of confidants. New addition Abby (Alexandra Shipp) moved to the suburb from the big city not too long ago and immediately found a home in this uber-friendly fab four. Even though they all tell each other everything, Simon has never summoned the courage to let any of them know that his affections long for men, not women.
In some ways, he needs to come out to himself and accept who he is and who he loves. But, like so many of us at that age, uncertainty rules the roost on so many different subject matters… it’s hard to firmly state who we are to our friends if we are not even so confident in it ourselves.
These multitude of issues and layers to the story are handled with such pitch perfect precision in Love Simon. That is certainly due to some divine direction by Berlanti. But, a large part of the tribute must be adorned on screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker. All involved had a rich source material to cull from (and as we all know that makes all the difference in the world) with Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Some of the best movies and most important stories that make it to the silver screen seem to have literary beginnings, don’t they?!
Robinson is sensational. There is a complexity to his character, as you can discern from what has been written so far, that requires an actor of a certain skill set to manage to bring all those elements to the forefront when the material, the scene and the tone calls for it. The actor shows a command of character and material that is not usually something we get from someone of his younger age. He showed lots of promise in the charming Everything, Everything and some may remember him stealing scenes from Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire as a much younger actor.
Regardless of our background—sexuality, teenage history, whether we have kids or not—the response is universal to Robinson and what he has achieved with his titular character. It is a benchmark performance in a film that history will credit with being a game changer for a multitude of reasons.
We would be remiss if we did not mention the stellar turn by Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel as Simon’s parents. For many gay children seeking to come out, the parental units are one of many hills that all have to climb to reach their rightful place in happiness. The manner with which Garner and Duhamel handle their parts should be a blueprint for all parents grappling with the same situation at home. In fact, can those two play parents in every teenage-centric movie going forward? We jest… mostly.
The Love Simon Blu-Ray bonus features are fascinating, albeit a bit short.
Given that the crew that Simon surrounds himself are so interwoven into his life and so powerfully portrayed by all involved, might we suggest diving into The Squad featurette first after digesting the awesomeness that is the film itself. It’s a terrific look at how cinematic chemistry plays such an integral role in whether a film’s story works or not. As seen on this bonus feature, with this crew, it is no wonder the movie is such a success.
The Adaptation showcases how the triumphant book, Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda was mesmerizingly brought to the silver screen. As we all know, bringing story from page to screen can be a daunting and thankless effort. Filmmakers will always be fighting an uphill battle as most books continually outdo their cinema counterpart. What we have here, as seen in this featurette, is the rare movie that builds upon the charm of the source material and allows the medium that is film take the audience into realms that a literary effort could never achieve.
Dear Georgia and Dear Atlanta salute the state and city where Love Simon was filmed and it’s easy to see why the southern locale is giving Hollywood a run for its money. The deleted scenes are interesting, but it is easy to see why they got cut. Given the utter adoration that the filmmakers had for this subject and how well they managed to bring the book to life, might we suggest turning the audio commentary on for a future watch to bask in the mastery of what director Berlanti, producer Isaac Klausner and co-screenwriter Aptaker achieved. Hearing their thoughts on various scenes throughout the film watching experience adds layers and richness to a movie experience that was already deep.
Film Grade: A
Bonus Features: B