There’s a moment in Love, Simon, immediately after closeted teenager Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) comes out to his friend Abby (Alexandra Shipp), when Abby doesn’t know what to say so she contemplates the silence for just a moment and then simply replies: “Well, I love you.” It’s arguably the truest and most instructive moment in Greg Berlanti’s sensibly-Midwestern gay rom-com-dram, which offered as much a funny, evocative, and at times emotionally nostalgic moviegoing experience as it did a roadmap for treating the ever-widening visibility of gay characters. When someone comes out to you, all you need to say is “I love you.”
Despite a record year of inclusion on television, there’s still a long way to go for LGBTQ representation in Hollywood across the board (and all things considered, coming-out stories of white gay men have received a disproportionate amount of attention while the stories of others in the community have gone wholly untold — a status quo Hollywood must work significantly harder to change). But treasures like this year’s Love, Simon still nevertheless move the needle forward in a way that the LGBTQ community collectively needs, presenting your gay son, brother, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance as every bit deserving of a great John Hughes love story as any of those teen heroes of ‘80s cinema. Berlanti’s sleeper hit was effortlessly diverse, sweetly grounded (even with its fun bursts of fantasy), and not manipulative in the way these stories tend to be, with strong performances only adding to the film’s resonance. Ultimately, what I’m most grateful for is that it’s exactly the kind of movie an older generation wishes had existed when they were younger — a bittersweet but buoyant way of vicariously imagining the happy gay teen years so many generations didn’t get to experience, but feeling a melancholy peace knowing that the next generation will. — Marc Snetiker
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