Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it’s a little more complicated. He hasn’t told his family or friends that he’s gay, and he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing.

Review

Barend – When I first heard about the movie Love, Simon, I thought it would be just another average coming out love story. Little was I prepared for what was to follow. The film it turns out, resembles in many ways my own past, growing up in a suburban environment and hiding my sexuality and true identity from society for a long time.

It brought back memories of the constant pressure I experienced in an effort to try and hide my true identity whilst at school and part of my student life; the pressure from the internal conflict one faces growing up in a conservative society, and knowing you don’t fit in; the internal agony from experiencing your first boy crush, but know you can’t voice it; the pressure to laugh at gay jokes in order to fit in; the constant lies that you tell to everyone as to why you are not dating for fear of the reaction the truth may bring (but every Sunday you confess ‘I shall not lie’); the pressure you feel not to get caught when the boys check out girls while you check out the boys; the pressure experienced from your partner for you to come out to your family in order for you to be together; the pressure from girl friends who want to be your girlfriend (even if they know you’re gay), the fear of telling your best friend you’re gay as you know ‘that things will never be the same again’. As for many, this secrecy is not because we are ashamed of being gay, but for fear that should our ‘secret’ be uncovered, our world as we know it would shatter and we’d be faced with disappointment from friends and loved ones.

For me personally, this movie brings together all the emotions and difficult situations a lot of gay guys face pre-and-post coming out in a very funny, heart-warming and emotional way. Every step of the way I felt I was walking in Simon’s shoes, his story a true reflection of my own as his character embodies everything I am today up to the last minute of the film. I can’t imagine my life without this film. I laughed, I cringed, I cried, but most importantly, I loved every second.

10/10