Love, Simon, is a romantic drama that follows Simon Spier as he navigates high school with friends and family while also being gay. Sending powerful messages while also making you laugh, this film will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. Relatable characters also make many scenes feel like they could be happening in your backyard. It stars Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, and Logan Miller. The movie was written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger and directed by Greg Berlanti.

Spier, who is played by Robinson, has a wonderful family and understanding, kind friends. He lives a relatively normal life, besides the large secret he has been keeping since he was young. He is gay.

When a anonymous student at his school comes out as gay online, he anonymously begins to message him online, and through sharing their struggles, and feelings together, he begins to fall in love. Simon begins to try to find out who this mysterious boy is at his school, but then another student at his school Martin Addison (Logan Miller) sees the messages, and things start to go downhill.

Addison blackmails Spier forcing him to lie to his friends Leah Burke (Katherine Langford) and Abby Suso (Alexandra Shipp). This causes lots of tension in Spier’s life, and eventually ends up in his secret coming out.

The movie highlights many important aspects of how life is for people growing up gay in high school, whether it is a secret or not. It shows that even with good friends and family, being gay can be a hard ordeal through the teenage years. This movie promotes acceptance of the LGBT community, and also questions why straight is the default.

This movie is definitely a must-see for WA students, as many lessons it teaches, like tolerance and acceptance, are things that WA students need to learn. Through the movie, I felt that I became more knowledgeable and aware of the struggle it is to be gay in our society.

Berlanti, music director Rob Simonsen and the rest of the staff did a great job with this movie making it relatable. The clothes the kids wear, the music they listen to, and the way they interact with each other all made me feel like this story was happening in a place just like WA. The movie being relatable was important because without viewers being able to draw back what was happening in the movie to their daily lives, the lessons shown throughout it would not come through as clearly.

Acting by Robinson and his parents played by Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner also created some powerful scenes in the movie. Robinson also did a great job in the many solo scenes he had, developing his character’s faults, strengths, and struggles in an authentic way that made him one of the most powerful main characters I have ever seen.

The one problem I have with this movie is centered around the character Martin Addison, who is played by Logan Miller. Whether it’s due to the writing, directing, or acting is unclear, but Addison comes off as more comedic then he should, and many of the exploits he carries out through the movie are just plain evil.

Overall, this movie’s creative story, relatable setting, and powerful acting make it a must-watch movie this spring as it will teach modern-day lessons that are needed in today’s society.

9/10