Love, Simon (2018)

Movie · 2018 · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 1h 50m · PG-13 · English

Curator score: 4.1/10 (678.8K ratings)

Everyone deserves a great love story.

Overview

Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-year-old Simon Spier, it's a little more complicated. He hasn't told his family or friends that he's gay, and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he's fallen for online.

Ratings

Director

Greg Berlanti

Production

Temple Hill Entertainment, Fox 2000 Pictures, New Leaf Literary & Media, 20th Century Fox, Twisted Media

Cast

Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Logan Miller, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Talitha Eliana Bateman, Tony Hale, Natasha Rothwell, Miles Heizer, Joey Pollari, Clark Moore, Drew Starkey, Mackenzie Lintz, Cassady McClincy-Zhang, Alex Sgambati, Jamila Thompson, Emily Jordan

Where to watch

Max

Curator Review

Verdict

A warm, accessible coming-of-age romcom that balances first-love nerves with the emotional weight of coming out. It’s a little polished and familiar, but it remains sincere, comforting, and genuinely moving for viewers who want a hopeful queer teen story.

Best for

  • viewers who want a gentle, uplifting LGBTQ+ romance
  • fans of high-school coming-of-age stories
  • people looking for an easy-entry queer film with mainstream polish
  • audiences who like heartfelt family dynamics and online-romance setups

Skip if

  • you want a rawer, messier indie coming-out story
  • you’re allergic to glossy studio teen-movie sentiment
  • you prefer romance with more ambiguity or edge
  • you dislike predictable third-act emotional reconciliation

Overview

Love, Simon is a crowd-pleasing teen romance that understands how big small moments can feel when you’re seventeen and hiding a core part of yourself. Its biggest strength is sincerity: the movie treats Simon’s fear, hope, and embarrassment with enough care that even the familiar beats land with real emotional force.

Worth noting

The film works best as a comfort watch. It’s polished, funny, and easy to root for, with a strong supporting cast and a sweet online-crush premise that gives the story a modern hook. It also captures the social texture of high school well enough to make Simon’s isolation feel immediate, even when the movie stays safely within studio-movie boundaries.

Bottom line

If you want something thornier or more formally adventurous, this may feel a bit neat. But as a mainstream queer coming-of-age story aimed at a wide audience, it does what it sets out to do very well: it offers recognition, reassurance, and a sincere romantic payoff.

Top Letterboxd reviews

mia lee vicino (3★) · 9606 likes

things love, simon got correct about gay culture: -iced coffee -musical theater -watching panic! at the disco videos on youtube in middle school incorrect about gay culture:-simon’s ability to drive

antonio (3★) · 9470 likes

simon falling in love with any boy who was even remotely nice to him is peak repressed gay representation.

cassie (5★) · 6673 likes

So here’s the thing: I’m bi. I’ve never said that out loud, never even typed it. I’m out to absolutely nobody. Except, I guess, anyone who’s reading this now. I don’t necessarily believe in fate, but I do believe that sometimes the universe places things in your life exactly when and where you need them. For me, perhaps one of the best examples of that is Love, Simon. A few things about me: I’m a senior in my final few… more

kai (4★) · 3832 likes

i just realized this must be how straight people feel when they watch romcoms

ciara (3.5★) · 3386 likes

simon’s friends were shitty as fuck god damn heterosexuals they expected me to forget how they just abandoned him when he got outed because they’re selfish bitches just because of how cute the ending was?? “oooOhh u told us a lie bc u were being fucking blackmailed so we two straights thought we couldn’t fuck each other ooooOh our lives r so hard” fuck off dumb straight bitches i’m fucking mad

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Topics

LGBTQ+, coming-of-age, romantic comedy, teen drama, feel-good, identity, family dynamics, high school, internet romance, mainstream studio

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