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Monday, December 10, 2018

Love, Simon (2018)

I watched this sweet coming of age movie, which I watched on a long haul flight recently.  It is a mainstream-styled teenage rom-com that uses every cliche in the book. There's the nerdy Vice Principal, the bacchanalian high school party, supportive yet somewhat clueless parents, witty voice over from the protagonist, public declarations of love in front of the whole school, all held together by a stream of catchy pop tunes. But it uses of these cliches represents a huge first, because it is the story of a young closeted gay kid's difficult and often humorous march towards coming out.
Simon has a secret ongoing email dialogue with another closeted gay student, and it has the effect of making him more aware that he is hiding something from everyone he loves, but no less fearful of being exposed.  Then he gets involuntarily outed, as so often happens, and his whole world comes momentarily comes crashing down, and then it has to be put back together again.

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