Love, Simon (No Spoilers!)

It feels like a million years since I last went to the cinema, so when I won a £10 cinema voucher at a work meeting it was something I wanted to use straight away. Since there are so many great films out at the minute, I left it up to a twitter poll to decide for me.

Love, Simon it is then! This was the film I was secretly hoping would win; I've heard a lot about it on social media and through marketing, and really wanted to make sure I saw it in a cinema first. This is the first LGBT lead film to be supported by a major studio, so the film has received a lot of hype pre-release. I did at first think this was a sequel to Love, Rosie (a rom-com I'm told is very good, but I've never actually seen) - turns out it isn't. Instead, it's a sweet, warm, accessible, #relatable rom-com with a lot of heart. Centred around main character Simon as he navigates coming to terms with his sexuality and coming out. I rounded up a few pals who were also keen to see the film and off we went.

Spoiler alert: I loved it. The film all the way has references to past rom-coms that have been popular which the target demographic of the film such as The Fault in Our Stars (of which the films share producers) and La La Land, which I thought was a nice touch as any LGBT+ viewers will then have that moment for themselves too. There is lovely direction and cinematography throughout, especially the climax of the film at the carnival which features beautiful colours and styling.

My biggest crew shout out absolutely has to go to the writers Elizabeth Berger and Issac Aptaker. All the characters were really well written - myself, Harry and Maia couldn't help but laugh at the deputy of the school and the drama teacher, as all of us coming from the same school they reminded us of our own head of sixth form and drama teacher, whose mannerisms and language match almost exactly. Beyond that, all three of us were laughing and occasionally crying all the way through the film, sometimes at different moments as different parts hit us all differently, but you definitely either related to or empathised with Simon and the events that happened all the way through. The 'whodunnit'-esque guessing game of which character is Simon's love interest 'Blue' was also excellently written and carried out consistently all the way through.

Performance wise, lead actor Nick Robinson did a brilliant job. He's been acting since around 2010, but has really come into his own in recent years with performances in films such as Jurassic World, Everything, Everything and TV show Melissa & Joey. It will be interesting to see what he gets up to in the future. 

The film also featured Katherine Langford, who will be most well known for her role as Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why. She again did a good job - my only criticism being that the character she played was incredibly similar to her previous roles, and I sometimes struggled in my mind to distinguish that she wasn't playing Hannah Baker. I'd love to see her in a role completely different to these in the future, just so she can break out of the typecast box a bit and branch out. 

Love, Simon was honestly a brilliant film - for me and my friends at least, it's a strong contender for best movie of the year (at least so far) and if you get a chance to go see it at the cinema - take it. 

"No matter what, announcing who you are to the world is pretty terrifying, because what if the world doesn't like you "