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.
Starring:
Nick Robinson (Simon)
Jennifer Garner (Emily)
Josh Duhamel (Jack)
Katherine Langford (Leah)
Alexandra Shipp (Abby) L
ogan Miller (Martin)
Keiynan Lonsdale (Bram)
Film Opinion
This is the type of film I always find especially interesting, films that represent current moods and the state of society and this film portrayed the topic within society really well. I must admit for the first 20 minutes of the film I was struggling to stay awake, with cheesy jokes and a typically unfunny school vice president pretending he is cool and relatable to students when especially to me this was a bit over the top and unneeded in the most part; although his jokes did seem to get lots of laughs from the rest of the audience - maybe I've just got a poor sense of humour? Hmm, I'm not sure!
Simon seemed to fall in love over a few emails with the mysterious character “Blue” when maybe the film could’ve used a time lapse of Simon constantly checking and sending emails to blue? The film definitely became more interesting as it developed with several key events really gripping me and really engaging me in the film. The first scene was the party where we were able to see a different side to the group of friends and their personalities which was a nice addition to the film and it also gave me an important insight into Simon and how he engaged with his friends although it did leave me questioning why Simon went purely off the orange flavour oreo to find his lover – “blue”. A bit of a vague trail to follow I thought.
The film portrayed Simon’s emotional reactions to the different scenarios really well and was really effective at relaying this to the audience, again using key events to engage well with them and I feel this really benefitted the film as it was able to show a mix of Simon’s life from his friends and being within school to how he acted at home and the use of close camera shots really made me feel as if I was there with him, which again really enhanced the effect of the film. The film was a little cliché however, using a typical group of friends, in a typical rich American nuclear family at a – yup you guessed it - a typical high school which I’ve seen all too many times before. I feel that the theme of the film of Simon secretly being gay really helped the film, however, to help a much larger audience feel sympathy for the character, especially when he is going through emotional change due to the bullying in the lunch hall and change he occurs after coming out within his family. This film, although it was slightly cliché really gripped me and as a sign of all good movies left me questioning and talking to my friends who watched the film afterwards. The film raised some valid and intriguing points about being gay whilst also humorous by suggesting ‘why is it only homosexuals that have to come out’ and then messing with the coming out by showing emotionally stressed parents when their child comes out to them as straight.
This was a really interesting part of the film because it applied to the real world too which I especially liked about. Overall I feel that the film tackled the topic really well and displayed the story of Simon in a really intriguing manner, I also felt really gripped and entertained by how him and his small group of friends moved around and mingled within the different situations and how all of their individual relationships developed and adapted to the situations presented within the film.
Although as I was wearing a panic! at the disco shirt in the film I did get a few laughs from my friends when Simon claimed he knew he was gay when he started listening to Panic! and his room was covered in posters. Ah!
I really enjoyed the film and it would definitely register as one of my favourite films primarily due to the topic and how it was presented to the audience in a really engaging and intriguing manner. I will be watching the film again to catch up on toilet breaks!! Overall I would give the film 8.5 out of 10.
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