SNAPSHOT
Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying and life-changing. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Dawson’s Creek, Brothers & Sisters), written by Isaac Aptaker & Elizabeth Berger (This is Us), and based on Becky Albertalli’s acclaimed novel, Love, Simon is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love. (synopsis via Coming Soon)
As a gay man who came out a long time ago, I knew all too well what it is to shoulder the burden of an impossible to utter secret.
Well at the time it feels like you’ll never be able to get the words, with the full import of coming clean about your sexuality seemingly too big an ask.
That’s where we meet Simon who is a typical teenager in every way possible – with the exception of his sexuality which defiantly won’t accede to the heteronormative world around him.
“I deserve a great love story, and I want someone to share it with.”
No one knows that of course but his online friend Blue, a fellow gay student at his school who is the only one who knows the full expansiveness of Simon’s needs and desires.
At its heart, Love, Simon aka Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, which was a brilliant read in just about every respect, is a pure and simple love story, a beautifully articulated of life that doesn’t fit the norm but is no less wonderful and meaningful because of it.
If nothing else, and there’s a great deal to learn from this funny, wise and insightful story, Love, Simon will go a long way to reminding people once again that love is love and that it is no respector of the labels we apply.
Love, Simon opens 16 March in USA and 29 March in Australia.