They’re more than offset by the gushing, over-the-top “Your Pal” version of the vice principal ( Tony Hale, pulling out all the stops, and then some) and the sassy, “I was an extra in ‘Lion King,’ and this is where I am” lesbian drama teacher (Natasha Rothwell).Ī few funny lines ensue, but veteran TV director Greg Berlanti has his cast play them sitcom broad. The lack of bite in those cutting remarks make you think “Dad doesn’t mean it.” That’s a function of the performance and pretty much the way they entire picture plays. Jennifer Garner plays his indulgent, bubbly psychotherapist mom with great empathy, and Josh Duhamel’s the ex-jock dad who makes “one man ‘pride parade'” and “fruity” cracks - about other people, not his own kid. Those friends include the requisite slightly-chunky female BFF ( Katherine Langford), the hunky jock ( Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) and the cooler-than-cool bi-racial cutie ( Alexandra Shipp) Simon’s in “Cabaret” with. Yeah, Simon’s in theater. Simon still doesn’t think it “fair that only gays have to ‘come out.'” That sets up the dorky “Mom, Dad, I’m heterosexual” gag montage that you’ve seen in the film’s trailer. His email pen pal “Blue” becomes his gay confesssor, the student Simon says everything he feels, at 17, and how much he wants to feel love, to have his “great romance” (teen edition). It takes an anonymous blog post from a classmate in the same circumstances to bring Simon closer to accepting who he is and putting that out there for all to see. There’s a cute moment or two when he tries out his gaydar and tries to flirt. Maybe it’s his dumpy hoodie/t-shirt wardrobe, or his carefully chosen-for-public-consumption classic rock playlist (The Kinks), but his family doesn’t know, his friends don’t know. Simon, played with a sort of guarded reticence by Nick Robinson of “The Kings of Summer,” narrates that “I’m just like you.” He uses words like “normal” in a defensive way that seems straight out of 1999. It traffics in gay stereotypes and swims in a sea of sweeter-than-sweet characters, none sweeter that its title character. But anybody who’s been around for a few decades and maybe seen decades of queer cinema that came before it can be excused (Let’s hope) for shrugging and saying, “Yeah, and?” It’s a “coming out” romance” that tries too hard - much too hard, and a dated “edgy” subject comedy with may too much of the edge rubbed off.īased on Becky Albertalli’s adorable 2015 novel, it’s a film that’s going to speak to kids going through this watershed moment now. “Love, Simon” is a gay coming-of-age comedy that seems from another era. But the tide of history turned a decade ago and the speed of change and acceptance in the culture has been, by any measure, breathtaking. Still a big deal on a personal level, and there are still families that might not “get” the whole tolerance thing. The occasional giant step backward notwithstanding, we’re a long way from “The Hangover” (2009) and its “Paging Dr.
It gets better, the saying and the TV public service announcement campaign told us.
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