If you're going to the movies... go see LOVE, SIMON!!

I just wanted to share with you this movie! It's amazing! I've seen it twice already, on a special sneak preview last Saturday and on a special screening for the gay community on Thursday.

"Love, Simon" is based on the book "Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda", and it's the story of a teenage boy who's struggling to come out of the closet, to his friends, family and eventually, the world. The movies was directed by AMAZING Greg Berlanti and it stars Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford and Keiynan Lonsdale.

In this movie, Simon struggles with coming out while having an annonymous penpal, Blue, who is also a closeted gay kid at his school. When his emails end in the wrong hands, he has to act as wingman for his blackmailer or his secret gets exposed.

It's such a funny and emotional movie. I was literally crying out of laugher and emotion.

It's amazing.

Now you know what to do this weekend.

I've often wondered how I might have lived my life if we had the internet when I was in high school. In college, once you were out at least among friends, we had our own underground, so to speak. High school however, could be brutal. Only those who wanted to be ostracized our beat up were out. I only knew of one kid in my high school that was suspected of being gay. Fortunately, most of us didn't really understand homosexuality including myself.

I remember my best friend wanting some sort of mutual masturbation with me. He was the starting linebacker on the football team. Being an only child with no brothers or older siblings to talk to, I was too shy to say yes until late in our senior year, I brought it up and asked if he was still interested. He said he was but that he was afraid he'd enjoy it too much. We were all under such pressure to do the things males were supposed to do: be brave and strong, get married and have kids. I think the internet and better communication has changed a lot of that. That may be why I love "coming of age" stories and movies like "Call Me By Your Name".

I actually just posted my review about this movie in another thread!

So I just saw Love Simon in theaters. I really had no plans to watch this movie as I just don't like teen romantic comedies, but after a few solid recommendations I gave in. To my great surprise I very much enjoyed this movie.

Unlike most teen romantic comedies this movie has a lot of heart. There were many times the movie brought a tear to my eye. I didn't find the movie to be emotionally manipulative or heavy-handed either. It just all around funny and heartwarming.

The movie also does a great job portraying the confusion and complexity of adolescents. The interactions between Simon and his friends felt genuine and real. There really weren't any typical tropes from this genre in the film. Overall it felt like a very human film.

To add, the movie was just all around funny. Not stupid funny but really smart funny. I had a lot of fun and enjoyment watching this movie. I just did not expect to walk into a movie targeting teens that could be this smat. All around it is a well written work of art.

Acting wise the movie was also solid. There really wasn't a role that I thought was truly outstanding, but everyone did a good job and played their part.

My one major criticism of the movie is that the ending felt a tad too Hollywood cookie cutter happy-ending for me. This of course could just be the cynic in me, but the last 20 minutes or so just did not feel genuine or real to me. For a movie that held itself up by being genuine, it just felt a little out of place.

All in all this has been one of my favorite viewing experiences of 2018. I really recommend anyone to watch this movie. It is a rare example of a movie that may be classified as a teen romantic comedy, but is still smart and heartwarming at the same time. A 8.5 out of 10.