If you want to watch a love movie about parting with life, a serious and rational affirmative action movie, or a carnival Pride promotional movie, this is not a good choice. This film, which focuses on the "coming out" of American teenagers, breaks away from the obscure, forbidding, or slanted styles of previous same-sex movies, but uses the best creative methods of American movies to thoroughly make this theme. A family-friendly drama with mainstream values. In this sense, this is the beginning of an era.
This is not to say that coming out is as easy as eating and sleeping. In today's world, even in the United States, there are still many teenagers who are suffering because of their orientation. But that's not the intent of the film. We have seen too many sad stories and heard too many helpless sighs. Even warriors cry when they are tired. This is the uniqueness of this film. He just tells you a simple truth through the first love story of a cute little gay: my first love and yours are no different.
From the very beginning, Simon Spier told us that he was just an ordinary high school student, with a father, a mother, a sister, a dog, and a group of good friends who hang out with each other every day. Simon didn't choose to be different, because everything he had seemed ordinary but he was very content. However, in a world where everyone is heterosexual by default, he has to be different. (The movie also has a wonderful reversal plot, why heterosexuals don't need to come out of the closet, which is extremely funny, but if you think about it carefully, it can only be used as a joke.)
As Simon said, he doesn't see anything wrong with his orientation, but he has to consider the consequences of coming out. Whether a good friend will feel awkward and alienate him, or whether his parents will treat him as different, these are all very real questions. If the people around him just reluctantly accept it, the happy time he has now will be greatly reduced. Seeing this, there should be many people who feel the same way. Coming out of the closet may not be as severe as a life-or-death decision, but the price to be paid is still subversive.
The film's nuanced and sometimes hysterical portrayal of Simon, an adolescent, is very successful. At the same time, it also abandoned the previous single, bitter love narrative style, and adopted a slightly suspenseful conjecture. Although it is not original, it is used just right. This also reflects the huge market and creative space of this theme from another aspect. At the same time as Simon's main line, several branch lines have been added ingeniously. For example, Leah has a crush on Simon, but feels that he may not be worthy and feels humbled. Another example is the kind of loss that Nick has a crush on Abby but mistakenly thinks that the other party belongs to him. Maybe everyone's experience is different, but the ignorance, shyness, doubts because of love, and even inferiority in adolescence are very similar. Love is love, and it will not lose its essence just because the one who falls in love with the same sex, this is what this film wants to tell you. "It's like sitting on a Ferris wheel, one second is the top of the world, the next second it falls to the bottom." How can this sentence Simon often say does not apply to other students.
It is worth mentioning that this film also got rid of the ideal definition of gay people in the past. Simon in the film is neither a bad student, nor a downright good guy. He saw that his fellow gay classmates were bullied and never spoke up, and even deliberately broke up his friend's marriage in order to protect his secret. It is precisely because of this that Simon has become more real and lovely. The gay group, who has been wandering in the extremes of demonization and deification, has finally been normalized. They have the same desires and selfishness as everyone else, and even intentionally or unintentionally hurt the people around them, which is not fundamentally different from Martin exposing Simon's old story in order to divert everyone's attention.
As a main theme film, it is almost necessary to oppose school bullying. This part of the film is also just right. I agree with Simon's mother, there are some things that you have to experience to grow up, and parents can't interfere. It is commendable that the two gays in this film have strong hearts. When facing bullying, they do not have the tangled inferiority complex of previous films, but instead they fight back head-on. Although the teachers and students of the whole school had a mentality of watching the fun when they learned that Simon was out of the closet, they all stood up to help when they encountered real bullying. Maybe this is exactly what the film said, it's 2018, does anyone really care if you like a boy or a girl? Yes, it's the 21st century, who cares about that? It has to be said that public opinion in mainstream American society has been improving, and what social progress gives individuals is a stronger heart. You have to face your difficulties bravely, because you are never alone.
Interestingly, the handling of several bullies in the film is also very plump. Two boys who like to imitate others have an interest beyond ordinary people in gays. It is not so much that they have bad behavior, but that they are out of some kind of jealousy. Perhaps in their opinion, the people who are able to come out and seek true love are stark comparisons of their own obedience. As a main negative character, Martin also has a few shining points. He is delicate, let go, and even in the end it is a little sweet to lie to Simon so that he is not embarrassed. This kind of treatment also points back to the theme again, we, you and them are really not that different.
Simon was forced to come out of the closet in the whole school, which may be the worst nightmare for those who hide in the closet. But otherwise, his journey has been really smooth. Friends understand that the family relationship has become even closer. If you imagine carefully, his real contradiction in the whole film is only in his deceiving friends and looking for an online boyfriend, and these are the same things that other people will experience and worry about?
You deserve everything you want in life, Simon's mother told him.
Yes, in the end Simon and his buddies continued to hang out, only this time with a new member, Blue. His life is back to "normal" again. When everyone is out of the closet, the closet doesn't exist. From the perspective of coming out of the closet, this film shows a world without a closet. After putting aside all prejudices, what is the difference between you and my first love?
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