Saw Love, Simon, a fairly heartwarming film about a gay teen navigating coming out and highschool. I really liked it, but it was also very hard to watch sometimes. Being gay, any time I watch a film about gay guys, it's a lot more visceral for me. Normally, there's a bit of remove for me in romance films and I have to sort of translate in my head, projecting my empathy over a slightly wider gap than most people. It's not a big deal usually, but the gay films seem a little too close, uncomfortably real. So, the romantic scenes made me cry, and the awkward scenes (of which there's many!) had me shouting at the TV, horror-movie style. I really enjoyed it, but I'll bet it's not high on anyone's "must watch" list.
The film takes place somewhere warm where you can wear a hoodie outdoors during Christmas. The attractive protagonist Simon goes to an enormous school where he hangs out with a clique of similarly attractive, friendly, decent, popular kids who have enough freedom to just fuck off to a house party some night. He lives in a mansion with his dotingly permissive and successful parents and he begins the film by narrating that he's "just like you" only gay. Ok.
This is standard John Hughes-type stuff though (and this is a very John Hughes-type movie). It should be regarded as escapism and wish-fulfillment and as a simple way of making sure only the central struggle with sexuality is the focus. The film is half for adult gays who want a window into a kinder universe and half for struggling teens, trying to figure themselves out and to judge when to commit publicly. It's a very kindly world which does not actually exist for many kids, but it's there to grant wishes and to show what could be - it's not there to be a documentary.
Anyway, the film is very standard, teen-movie stuff. There's drama and big shouty show-downs and bullies and parents who just don't understand! And yeah, I recognize all of this, but oh my god I loved it! It was so sweet and so nice and it just melted my heart. I make no claims to objectivity - this movie was for me.
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