Happy Pride Month!
This took me forever to watch because I was torn between worry and laughing every thirty seconds because this is a really funny movie.
I hear and understand the criticisms of "We could use more stories about non-white gay men coming out.", but this was a positive, happy-ending, widely released movie.
It means a lot to people, even to my black, bisexual-closeted self.
I appreciate the little asides, especially the one where Simon has an Imagine Spot where he goes to college and there is a mass dance number to "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and everyone has multi-colored shirts. Totally unexpected, and had me laughing for a while.
Realization struck me that Nick Robinson is the annoying older boy from Jurassic World. Glad he's not doing that shit anymore!
There's some meandering into stereotype territory with some characters but drags itself back to a fresh story. There's also some pacing issues - I paused the broadcast and Simon only talks to his father during the Heartfelt Moment in the last fifteen minutes of the film. This should have been a halfway-point kind of thing.
Persistent Nice Guy kid is a pain in the ass and gets his comeuppance and no reward of a young woman's love. If this came out fifty years ago, even with a 'straight' story, he would be rewarded Abby (Alexandra Shipp) for his persistent efforts.
Bram (Keiynan Lonsdale) disappears for about 40 minutes and returns, and it makes the payoff feel slightly less than satisfactory.
Besides the subject matter and how some of it is handled, there's really nothing overwhelmingly special about it, but there's just so much charm, emotion and humor in it that I can't help but love this immensely.
It's a movie people need - To see not only themselves but other people on the screen to grow empathy.
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