Love, Simon
Mar. 20th, 2018 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraIt's sort of funny, I love romance as a genre but I don't tend to seek it out unless I hear that some particular thing is really special? (I was thinking about this recently with regard to books, that I put a fair number of romance novels onto my to-read list, but maybe because they're not part of any big-picture time-relevant thing like the Hugos, I tend not to actually read them.) Love, Simon is the good stuff if you're into the whole teen romcom sort of thing. Although I was initially really thrown by their decision to cast a 30 year old man as a high school senior, like, yikes, what is this, Parker Lewis Can't Lose? Really had a hard time buying the character for the first chunk of the movie. Except then I looked him up on wikipedia when I got home and apparently Nick Robinson is only 22 now and was presumably even a year or two younger when they filmed, so, sorry Nick, I guess you weren't an unreasonable age to be playing late teens. (You still look vaguely like James Franco or something though, ew.) And also Corin Nemec wasn't actually 30 when he made Parker Lewis, despite my recollection of my parents joking about that (to my annoyance at the time, I think). I now have a theory that older actors look totally normal to teens, in teen-targeted media, because teens want to think of themselves as basically adults, but look weird to adults, who tend to "round down" rather than round up.
Anyways, further thoughts behind this nice spoiler cut:
- I was squicked by the principal with inappropriate boundaries and was relieved when he didn't end up doing anything awful. (I haven't read the book so I had no way of knowing if there was a surprise "molested by grandma" scene in here or anything. (Uh, that's a Sixteen Candles reference, on the topic of teen romcoms, and can I just say how pleased I am that appalling racism is not part of the formula any more, while I'm thinking of that movie?))
- Really interesting choices around Martin? Like he was in a lot of ways the character who I found most immediately relatable (trying to socialize by sharing/showing off his mastery of random facts, his excellent "Freudian slip" Halloween costume nobody appreciates, Simon being a dick about his shirts (my god I wanted to punch Simon for "nobody wants to read your clothes")). And yet he does this terrible, cruel thing. And, I don't know, I really liked that, that instead of being the one-dimensional evil rich kid possibly played by James Spader, who everybody knows they're not, the bad guy here was someone who you might have to actually ask yourself, wait, in my teen self-absorption and thoughtlessness, is it also in me to do something so horrible, maybe I should ask myself that. I mean, I personally know that I have survived my teen-asshole years and never did anything appalling to anyone, thank you, but in my ongoing campaign to get Junie to self-reflect in advance about the idea of social power and particularly the idea that you might not feel like you have it, and yet still have it, I just really appreciate fiction that explores this kind of thing. (Also Martin is *so tragically betrayed* by the aggressive-pursuit romance narrative, like, he totally thinks he's Heath Ledger doing 10 Things! Why wouldn't he think that! Except nobody actually wants that and it doesn't work like that! If this movie even starts to kill a tiny bit of the idea of the "grand gesture" it would be so good. Of course the end kind of undermines that buuuut what can you do.) (ETA: also the whole idea that the relationship could start in this sketchy, manipulative way, but turn real. 10 Things, Much Ado, etc. Don't watch movies, Martin, they're clearly bad for you.)
- And then Leah turned out to be the actual most relatable character for me, oh *god* the scene when she's sleeping in Simon's room. In some ways I wish teen me had had more stories about characters in unrequited love, like, I don't know, maybe I would have just tuned them out while eating up all those stories where the pining pays off, but, like, Leah! Is so good and so brave trying to still be a friend to Simon, and she has to do that work of getting over someone and she doesn't get bought off with a substitute love at the end. Duckie feelings for miles, basically.
- I felt like we really needed one more scene with just Simon and his sister having a conversation, and not the whole family, after she leaves in tears in the post-outing scene.
- I started crying in the big car scene, somehow inhaled wrong, and spent the rest of it hacking up a lung trying to breathe again and barely hearing the dialogue. I feel really bad about it as I'm sure it was very disruptive to the other six middle-aged ladies in the theater but also "choked to death on her own tears at a romcom" would be such a stupidly in-character way for me to go, yikes.
- Super in favor of movies that give parents models of parents doing a good job when their kid comes out.
- And, okay, the ending: on the one hand, as mentioned, boo grand gestures and situations that put someone under pressure to say yes to a date or a proposal or, yikes, out themselves, or anything like that. On the other hand it was such a beautiful scene, with his friends all gathered and cheering, and the yearning, and the last-minuteness, and, like, that was the most romantic thing I've seen on film in years and I'm not fucking immune. That kiss is going on any list I might ever try to make of top movie kisses or best rom-com moments, eeeee. Which, hm, actually:
(Back out from the cut) What *are* my favorite rom-coms. Clueless and Some Kind of Wonderful, by numbers of times watched. Roxanne. Ever After, if we're including things outside of the contemporary setting, and The Wedding Singer. Real Genius isn't really about the romance but it's my favorite teen comedy and it *has* a romance so let's sneak it on here too. Hm, if I wanted to widen my net beyond movies about young people, maybe African Queen, and Strictly Ballroom obviously (can't leave off my favorite movie...). I used to really love Groundhog Day and am scared to re-watch it with older, more critical eyeballs. I don't really watch Princess Bride for the romance but I suppose it counts category-wise. Edward Scissorhands and Benny and Joon and Don Juan deMarco are all retroactively tainted, bah. Grosse Pointe Blank, although that might be another comedy with a romance rather than a romantic comedy. IQ! Joe vs the Volcano! I'm totally going through wikipedia's list of 90s romantic comedies now. Although I also don't love Joe vs the Volcano as a romance, just as a comedy. But I'm a Cheerleader! Hepburn and Stewart have *so much chemistry* in Philadelphia Story but it doesn't pay off. Oh, but then there's Holiday, where she has chemistry with Grant and it does pay off, except I've only seen that once, and everything else here I've seen multiple times. Do classics count like Much Ado (the good Branagh one, obviously) or Pride and Prejudice (the good Firth one, also obviously)? I guess I counted Clueless right at the beginning. (Also, great kisses from non-romcoms: the Luhrmann R&J party kiss and kiss in the pool, the Brokeback Mountain kiss when they meet again, the where doesn't it hurt scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Maybe Peggy kissing Steve before he jumps onto the plane. Honestly, Padme and Anakin as they go into the arena (and then when she jumps down), which is the only scene whatsoever where I like them together but it's a good scene. I... can't actually remember if there's actually a kiss in the "who's asking" scene in Lois & Clark, but that's definitely imprinted on my brain in the romance-scenes category. And just recently I caught up on all of the Barry/Iris scenes from The Flash (despite having given up on the show a few years ago, some extremely helpful citizen has been putting all their scenes up on YouTube, so you can watch the relationship arc) and WOW there are some gorgeous kisses in that.) Anyways, this has been my brain on rom-coms, not really sure why, but hey.
ETA: wow, that was a long derail of my train of thought! Final thought about Love, Simon. I've been thinking a bit lately about representation in light of having finished watching Korra with the kids, and realizing that what was for me the mindblowing final scene in which *my ship sailed onscreen*, was not in the slightest romantic to my kids, who go "ewwwww" about kisses, and the word "love", but don't yet pick up on anything else. Like, I feel like it was still an example to them of "she doesn't have to end up with a boy", see also Brave and Moana, but not actually successfully "she ended up with a girl!". So I like that here's this teen-appropriate movie (with some sideeye to that one unnecessary conversation, which felt way more sexually explicit than anything else in the movie??) where it's really, really obvious, and I like the idea of this ending up as part of the default teen movie rotation.
Anyways, further thoughts behind this nice spoiler cut:
- I was squicked by the principal with inappropriate boundaries and was relieved when he didn't end up doing anything awful. (I haven't read the book so I had no way of knowing if there was a surprise "molested by grandma" scene in here or anything. (Uh, that's a Sixteen Candles reference, on the topic of teen romcoms, and can I just say how pleased I am that appalling racism is not part of the formula any more, while I'm thinking of that movie?))
- Really interesting choices around Martin? Like he was in a lot of ways the character who I found most immediately relatable (trying to socialize by sharing/showing off his mastery of random facts, his excellent "Freudian slip" Halloween costume nobody appreciates, Simon being a dick about his shirts (my god I wanted to punch Simon for "nobody wants to read your clothes")). And yet he does this terrible, cruel thing. And, I don't know, I really liked that, that instead of being the one-dimensional evil rich kid possibly played by James Spader, who everybody knows they're not, the bad guy here was someone who you might have to actually ask yourself, wait, in my teen self-absorption and thoughtlessness, is it also in me to do something so horrible, maybe I should ask myself that. I mean, I personally know that I have survived my teen-asshole years and never did anything appalling to anyone, thank you, but in my ongoing campaign to get Junie to self-reflect in advance about the idea of social power and particularly the idea that you might not feel like you have it, and yet still have it, I just really appreciate fiction that explores this kind of thing. (Also Martin is *so tragically betrayed* by the aggressive-pursuit romance narrative, like, he totally thinks he's Heath Ledger doing 10 Things! Why wouldn't he think that! Except nobody actually wants that and it doesn't work like that! If this movie even starts to kill a tiny bit of the idea of the "grand gesture" it would be so good. Of course the end kind of undermines that buuuut what can you do.) (ETA: also the whole idea that the relationship could start in this sketchy, manipulative way, but turn real. 10 Things, Much Ado, etc. Don't watch movies, Martin, they're clearly bad for you.)
- And then Leah turned out to be the actual most relatable character for me, oh *god* the scene when she's sleeping in Simon's room. In some ways I wish teen me had had more stories about characters in unrequited love, like, I don't know, maybe I would have just tuned them out while eating up all those stories where the pining pays off, but, like, Leah! Is so good and so brave trying to still be a friend to Simon, and she has to do that work of getting over someone and she doesn't get bought off with a substitute love at the end. Duckie feelings for miles, basically.
- I felt like we really needed one more scene with just Simon and his sister having a conversation, and not the whole family, after she leaves in tears in the post-outing scene.
- I started crying in the big car scene, somehow inhaled wrong, and spent the rest of it hacking up a lung trying to breathe again and barely hearing the dialogue. I feel really bad about it as I'm sure it was very disruptive to the other six middle-aged ladies in the theater but also "choked to death on her own tears at a romcom" would be such a stupidly in-character way for me to go, yikes.
- Super in favor of movies that give parents models of parents doing a good job when their kid comes out.
- And, okay, the ending: on the one hand, as mentioned, boo grand gestures and situations that put someone under pressure to say yes to a date or a proposal or, yikes, out themselves, or anything like that. On the other hand it was such a beautiful scene, with his friends all gathered and cheering, and the yearning, and the last-minuteness, and, like, that was the most romantic thing I've seen on film in years and I'm not fucking immune. That kiss is going on any list I might ever try to make of top movie kisses or best rom-com moments, eeeee. Which, hm, actually:
(Back out from the cut) What *are* my favorite rom-coms. Clueless and Some Kind of Wonderful, by numbers of times watched. Roxanne. Ever After, if we're including things outside of the contemporary setting, and The Wedding Singer. Real Genius isn't really about the romance but it's my favorite teen comedy and it *has* a romance so let's sneak it on here too. Hm, if I wanted to widen my net beyond movies about young people, maybe African Queen, and Strictly Ballroom obviously (can't leave off my favorite movie...). I used to really love Groundhog Day and am scared to re-watch it with older, more critical eyeballs. I don't really watch Princess Bride for the romance but I suppose it counts category-wise. Edward Scissorhands and Benny and Joon and Don Juan deMarco are all retroactively tainted, bah. Grosse Pointe Blank, although that might be another comedy with a romance rather than a romantic comedy. IQ! Joe vs the Volcano! I'm totally going through wikipedia's list of 90s romantic comedies now. Although I also don't love Joe vs the Volcano as a romance, just as a comedy. But I'm a Cheerleader! Hepburn and Stewart have *so much chemistry* in Philadelphia Story but it doesn't pay off. Oh, but then there's Holiday, where she has chemistry with Grant and it does pay off, except I've only seen that once, and everything else here I've seen multiple times. Do classics count like Much Ado (the good Branagh one, obviously) or Pride and Prejudice (the good Firth one, also obviously)? I guess I counted Clueless right at the beginning. (Also, great kisses from non-romcoms: the Luhrmann R&J party kiss and kiss in the pool, the Brokeback Mountain kiss when they meet again, the where doesn't it hurt scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Maybe Peggy kissing Steve before he jumps onto the plane. Honestly, Padme and Anakin as they go into the arena (and then when she jumps down), which is the only scene whatsoever where I like them together but it's a good scene. I... can't actually remember if there's actually a kiss in the "who's asking" scene in Lois & Clark, but that's definitely imprinted on my brain in the romance-scenes category. And just recently I caught up on all of the Barry/Iris scenes from The Flash (despite having given up on the show a few years ago, some extremely helpful citizen has been putting all their scenes up on YouTube, so you can watch the relationship arc) and WOW there are some gorgeous kisses in that.) Anyways, this has been my brain on rom-coms, not really sure why, but hey.
ETA: wow, that was a long derail of my train of thought! Final thought about Love, Simon. I've been thinking a bit lately about representation in light of having finished watching Korra with the kids, and realizing that what was for me the mindblowing final scene in which *my ship sailed onscreen*, was not in the slightest romantic to my kids, who go "ewwwww" about kisses, and the word "love", but don't yet pick up on anything else. Like, I feel like it was still an example to them of "she doesn't have to end up with a boy", see also Brave and Moana, but not actually successfully "she ended up with a girl!". So I like that here's this teen-appropriate movie (with some sideeye to that one unnecessary conversation, which felt way more sexually explicit than anything else in the movie??) where it's really, really obvious, and I like the idea of this ending up as part of the default teen movie rotation.
