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If you say, "Miss Bird" Last year was a female perspective of modern American comedy, then "Love you, Simon" is the modern American boys and young love Declaration; It's just that "Love" is more simple and direct. It has no hometown complex, mother-daughter bondage, and no tentative comparison between "big cities" and "small towns". What it has is a straightforward love story, a love story of a gay high school student. We can't imagine that "Miss Bird" will take place from Sacramento to Palm Springs, but we can turn Simon into Pete, into Jerry, into a friend around us, and even into ourselves.
If last year’s "Please Call Me by Your Name" showed the gay story of the South European style in the 1980s, and delicately portrayed the vision and self-identification of ignorant boys, then "Love You Simon" was released in March 2018. The mainstream view of love among same-sex youths in North American liberals. Mainstream does not refer to absolute quantity, nor does it refer to ideological advantage; mainstream is a view of same-sex love that is generally accepted by young people. Without the restrictions of the background of the times, "Love" appears more ordinary. It sincerely acts as a young male student and shows another dimension of same-sex love on the big screen: no bitterness, deep enmity, no environmental incomprehension, no tragic ending, no AIDS surroundings, and some just adolescent love ( Two or three little things about puppy love.
However, straightforwardness and sincerity are not the same as truthfulness.
This is a romantic comedy sketch where Simon, a seventeen-year-old high school student, communicated with another boy in the cabinet code-named "Blue" through the Internet, and generated love, and finally got a clearer understanding of himself. It was full of clichés and certain " Politically correct": weird headmaster, black female teacher with loud voice, weird sister, tolerant but buried parents, small group of friendship of two whites and two blacks, two men and two women... in the storyline The reversal, the sudden realization at the end, and the narrative rhythm at the end of the climax with a pinch of time are not very new. But the director Beranti, who has rich experience in TV dramas, lays out the background and story of such a routine, does not hide his coincidence intent, and even uses fragments of self-deprecating methods to tell the audience some political innuendo. And these clichés, uttered by energetic students, instead dilute those "contrived" and "sloppy" and become a humorous adjustment.
For example, at the Halloween make-up party, there was a retired version of Obama wearing a Hawaiian shirt and wreath, worried about his political legacy being destroyed by Trump; in the face of love torture, Simon (white) spoke bluntly to Nick (African American) The reason why I said I didn’t like Abby (African American) was not because she was black; I searched for the "Lemonade" (Beyonce) album in the car but couldn’t find...
this kind of background and routine background, there is no order The reason for the audience's dislike, apart from the clear audience (liberal young people, LGBTQI+ group), is more importantly the renovation and breakthrough in same-sex love routines.
The most direct breakthrough is the kiss and love exploration on the big screen, with the background of the protagonist as the student gay. Although same-sex subjects have a greater degree of freedom and acceptance than before, there are still very few that are discussed directly from a student background and as the protagonist. This level of breakthrough is no less than "the first kiss of the absolute protagonist of the small screen gay" in "Will and Grace". Of course, this is not to say that "Love" is the only one, but a large area of commercial theaters directly spread the audience, and it escapes the theme of gay bullying and even oppression, and absolutely normalizes the student perspective that minimizes the background. "Love" Undoubtedly made a clear statement of Hollywood now. Because of the background of commercial films in commercial theaters, it had to consider the market influence and company brand during the entire announcement.
The more critical breakthrough is the change in the way of expression and expression dimensions of same-sex subjects. With the development of social movements, the same sex, especially in the eyes of young people in European and American countries, is no longer regarded as an absolute alien. Although the themes describing same-sex movement and same-sex repression still dominate the mainstream of film and television, more and more works have changed from the perspective of "self-repression" and "environmental repression" to the dilemma of "self-normalization" and "integration into the environment/environmental acceptance" "; and "Love" further skips the perspective of identity recognition and becomes the affirmation of the "right to come out" identity.
In short, there are environmental resistance and self-resistance in "Love" but they are weakened. It emphasizes that, as a comrade, the right to come out is in your own hands, rather than being out of the closet by environmental pressure. Since the most critical identity and environmental conflicts in the same-sex subject matter are weakened, how to show the grabbing of power becomes the key point. At this time, the “cluttered” background setting (supporting family, strong friendship, and complex love life in high school) has become the best platform. Simon can easily skip the conclusion of the conflict with the opening paragraph of the movie and explore the other side of coming out:
my parents will support me, and my friends will accept me, but I don’t want coming out to change my current "ordinary, just like you." "Life", but I have to always have the right to choose when and where to come out.
Homosexuality is no longer a shackle, self-affirmation is no longer a shackle, and the environment is no longer a shackle. The problem shifts to an inclusive environment. When the direct result of coming out is no longer worry, how should we come out? Are you coming out? The film undoubtedly gave a positive answer: the right to come out is in your own hands. This seemingly simple answer is often ignored in film and television works. Because the absolute majority of films still (of course, this kind of subject matter is necessary and important) explore the various pressures faced by the same sex from a negative starting point.
In addition, this is not a same-sex story that has been repeatedly mentioned in the face of same-sex themes. This is the love story of everyone: part of the film affirms this approach, such as checking emails at any time when communicating with "blue" Think carefully. I don’t know how to adjust the language for many times. The details of life seem to be "blue" reflections. They are all standard expressions of adolescent love and have nothing to do with gender. However, the film also further generalizes the single story of love. Pull out from the middle and put it in the real multi-dimensional world.
Therefore, love is like an important "footnote" in high school life, linked with friendship, stage homework, and so on. What we see is not a young man looking at himself in love, but an ordinary person finding a clear love vein in all kinds of troubles. And all this is thanks to the cliche background setting.
For ordinary audiences, relatively speaking, they don't care about the vulgarity of the clichés, they like the haha smiles brought about by the "stereotype" of the supporting role. They like the careful thinking in the story. This is the most enthusiastic work of the audience that I saw in the cinema in 2018. In the affectionate kiss at the end of the movie, applause broke out on the court. And this kind of applause appeared many times in different segments of the film.
As for film critics, they also have to admire the director's straightforwardness and sincerity, and they have to admit that the director's unabashed clichés are necessary expressions to pave the core of the work. Therefore, in the film critics field, everyone also gave praise. In fact, many people are not tired of the mediocrity of the clichés. What everyone is tired of is covering the clichés with all kinds of gimmicks to cover up their superficiality, and they have no intention to innovate.
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