Love, Simon | Spoiler Free Movie Review – Coffee Cocktails & Books 📖

Hi friends,

I can’t believe it, but Valentine’s came early for me. I had a hot date with Mr. Simon Spier on the 13th of February with some friends and it was one of the best dates I’ve ever been on. Needless to say, I loved this movie. But I can share that in a Tweet (and I did…multiple times). But I wanted to break this one down a bit further.

So buckle up for my overly gushy, yet spoiler-free thoughts on the YA book adaptation everyone’s been (or should be) talking about.

PLOT POINTS

Love, Simon is the movie adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s bestseller Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. This is a ya contemporary novel that follows Simon as he navigates his senior year of high school. His school has an anonymous Tumblr page (because someone clearly was inspired by Gossip Girl) where all the drama is shared. At the beginning of the story, a mysterious character named Blue reveals that no one knows he’s gay and talks his mixed feelings due to this. Simon, using the pseudonym Jacques starts emailing Blue and the two form a cute flirtation and baby romance. Things take a turn when Simon forgets to log out of his email and fellow student Martin finds the emails and uses them to blackmail Simon to help him get with his friend Abby. Of course, hijinks ensue, but this book also opens up an important conversation about coming out and accepting yourself. There’s also an amazing conversation about expectations, stereotypes, and defaults.

If my opinion felt a bit brief or tongue and cheek for you all, I have the trailer below and the Goodreads above.

I absolutely loved this novel when I first read it and after seeing the movie, I really want to reread it. But now for the movie review.

GENERAL OPINIONS

How many times can I say I loved it without getting obnoxious? Seriously, this movie was one of the best YA adaptations I’ve ever seen. This movie captured the heart of the book and it was so much fun. It’s super cute; it’ll give you any and all feels. Also, this movie was fracken hilarious, omg. I have not laughed this hard in a movie in a long time. Like I don’t even think I laughed this hard in Jumanji 2, Thor 3, or Guardians (1 or 2) – this is my brand of comedy folks. I love how much of the humor was timeless relatable humor while throwing in some super relevant pop culture references.

I also want to shout this movie out for challenging (and demonstrating) the difference between funny and not funny jokes about the same material. This was used to prove a point. With some people using the “it’s just a joke” one-off phrase to offset being called out on offensive material, having a mainstream movie address this was refreshing. Also, shouting out the other people in the theater with me. There were so many reactions to things that happened that really added to the enjoyment of everything.

Oh and you were able to see this in the trailer too, but it was fun looking for the spines on Simon’s bookshelf to see what he was reading! I can’t wait for the film to come out and people who are better at detail spotting than myself to come out with a full list. From first glance, Simon has pretty good taste.

CASTING

This movie had some of the most perfect casting, like I have not seen a movie cast so well since (the late 💔) Alan Rickman (RIP ❤️) played Snape. The high school kids looked and sounded and acted like high school kids. The adults acted like actual adults. Some were sassy, some were trying to relate to the kids a bit too much, and others just reminded me of people in my life. I also liked that I finally feel like a high school movie knows what high schools are like. In the first few minutes, there is the classic pan of the school and it actually felt real. They acknowledge that cliques aren’t really a thing and that people can be friends with people who have different hobbies from them. They also acknowledge that when things happen, people will address it in different ways and adults will actually get involved when they need to.

PLOT THINGS & ADAPTATION THINGS

Of course, there were some differences from the book. Without going into spoilers, know there are some changes big and small. There were scenes missing, some kind of necessary (in the fact I was looking for it when it didn’t show up) and some that I didn’t really miss. I loved how the movie brought the emails and Simon’s flashbacks to life. That was where so much of the humor resided and it was great. There was one scene that was missing that I really wanted to be in the movie because it was probably my favorite part, but there was a lot of audience emotion going on when the part should have appeared, so it may have been there and I just missed it.

When the movie releases, you know I’m going to see it again (after a fresh re-read of the book) and I’ll amend if it WAS actually missing or not and go into more detail about what that scene was and why I wanted to see it so badly. I’ll for sure being doing a Book to Screen on this one (probably both on here and BookTube).

WHO SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE AND WHY

Everyone because it was magical. You think I’m kidding but I’m not.

But lovers of the book will really enjoy this one.

People on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum will love this one because it features a gay MC who is figuring his life out but it not just the “gay” kid.

People who are thinking that they might be on the LGBITQIA+ spectrum will love this one because it’s about loving and accepting who you are. And there are a couple scenes about self-discovery that may help those people.

People who love romance movies will like this one because there is some cute romance.

People who love comedy will like this one because this movie is hilarious.

And people who are looking for a feel good, relatable movie will like this one because it’s just a wholesome good time. We need more pure movies like this.

Also yes, you will cry…or at least tear up. Just a little bit. But FEEEELS.