LGBTQ teens feel the love for movie
‘Love, Simon’ has coming-out and coming-of-age plotlines
“I’m just like you,” 17-year-old Simon Spiers (played by Nick Robinson) says at the beginning of “Love, Simon,” as the camera pans over his picture-perfect suburban Atlanta neighborhood. When the new movie opens March 16, audiences will discover in affable Simon a familiar type of teen-movie protagonist. He’s a handsome high school senior with a low-key sense of humor, loving and liberal parents (played by Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel) and a tight group of friends who drive to school together blasting music and sipping iced coffee. “I just have one huge secret,” says Simon. “Nobody knows I’m gay.” “Thank God it’s not about Simon figuring out that he’s gay. We know that he knows in the first minute of the movie, and then they get on with it,” said Helen Sturman, 16, an 11th-grader at LickWilmerding High School. Students from Lick-Wilmerding’s Gender & Sexuality Awareness Group attended an advance screening of “Love Simon,” and then hung around the AMC Van Ness to discuss what they’d seen. They came up the escalator giggling and clearly excited to get a peek at the movie adaptation of a book many of them had read and loved — the 2015 youngadult bestseller “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” about closeted heartthrob Nick’s attempt to figure out the best way to come out to his friends and family, while he’s falling hard for an anonymous boy he met online. The teens alternated between laughter
and more serious confessions from their own lives about coming out, using social media to feel less alone, and looking for on-screen role models that have been sorely lacking.
So, did the coming-out and coming-of-age plotline of “Love, Simon” feel as groundbreaking as the early socialmedia hype suggested? Is Simon’s hesitation about being openly gay in high school realistic? Is the movie a big step forward in terms of having what’s depicted on screen actually reflect their lives as savvy, open-minded Generation Z LGBTQ teenagers? Their consensus: Yes. Yes. Yes.
“You know what I love most about it? We get a gay romcom!” said Annette VergaraTucker, 16, to loud fingersnapping in agreement from her peers.
They agreed that the movie’s upbeat, mainstream appeal could be what makes it most radical. (It’s the first big-budget movie romance about gay teenagers.)
“I really liked when Simon said, ‘I just want to be me and be gay.’ He didn’t want being gay to be his whole identity. I can really relate to that,” said Maxine Schulte, 16.
“I really like that they didn’t portray Simon as the gay stereotype you usually see on Netflix, or on something like ‘G.B.F.,’ ” said Cory Beizer, 16, the school group’s co-president.
“It’s a relief that he has a normal life, he’s just going through this inner crisis. He’s made peace with his identity; he’s just not sure the rest of the world is ready to make peace with it,” said Olivia Jacob, 16, holding hands with Annette, who wore a gray Lick hoodie, her straight brown hair tipped pink.
“Usually in a film with a gay character, he would be struggling with drug addiction or AIDS, or be a social outcast,” said Robinson (“Jurassic World,” “Everything, Everything”) by phone. “What’s exciting about playing Simon is that he is none of those things. He’s a cool, pretty reasonable dude, with a great family and supportive friends. And he just so happens to be gay.”
“I hope (“Simon”) fills a void that really shouldn’t still exist in 2018, but does,” said director Greg Berlanti (“Life As We Know It”). “As a closeted highschooler myself (in Rye, N.Y.), I never saw anyone like me reflected in any of the high school movies I loved.”
The Lick students all agreed that watching a story that’s up front about its protagonist’s orientation “beats searching everywhere like we usually do to find someone you can identify with,” said Olivia, to ensuing laughter from the friends seated around her about their looking for gayness in everything from “Harry Potter” to “The Great Gatsby” and “Frankenstein.”
“I’ve had to search for queer love in so many places,” said Helen.
“I remember doing that extra algebra to try to imagine a gay character where there wasn’t one,” said Berlanti. “Hopefully, everyone connects with this story, but Simon does mean something special to LGBTQ teens.”
The Lick students also said that “even in liberal San Francisco,” where most of them described having “underwhelming” and “mostly positive” coming-out experiences, Simon’s big truth-telling moment with his parents, who are unfalteringly accepting, could serve as a model for families.
“In any other gay movie, you see negative reactions of the parents. It’s so great to see another option, a sweet, positive way of doing it that leaves your son or daughter actually feeling heard,” said Helen.
“There’s a pitfall in terms of living in the San Francisco “Love, Simon” (PG-13) opens on Friday, March 16 in the Bay Area.
Read David Wiegand’s review of “Love, Simon” in the Friday, March 16, Datebook.
To see a video of the students discussing “Love, Simon”: http://bit.ly/simonteens bubble where you can have parents who truly have always believed they are accepting and liberal,” said Annette, “but then when their own kid comes out it’s like, uh oh. My kid?
“I almost cried when the dad (Duhamel) realizes that all the jokes he’s made over the years to Simon about girls were based on assumptions. That’s exactly what it feels like, when you come out and want your parents to apologize because it’s been years of family and others saying, ‘Introduce me to your boyfriend,’ and all you can do is squirm and feel uncomfortable.”
Robinson shared that “on a personal note, my younger brother came out only a few months after I finished the film. I think I was slightly better equipped to be helpful after working on this. It was this great full-circle moment.”
“I think it’ll be a huge gift to people who watch the movie and can see what a good reaction looks like,” said Jocelyn Murphy, 15. “Not asking more questions. Best of all, they didn’t say, ‘Are you sure?’
“Believe me, if you’re at the point that you’re coming out to your parents, you’re sure.”