Due to its publicity, I went to the movie, “Love, Simon,” with high expectations. It met all of them and exceeded two: its depiction of youth in 2018 and its handling of Simon’s character and story. This article is obviously going to be rife with spoilers, so I suggest seeing the film before reading it. It’s worth it.

“Love, Simon” is a movie for everyone, but it is especially crafted for the youth of 2018. It feels like the movie version of that teacher who is cool simply because they’re not trying to be. The film found a way to be accurate and relatable without lazy, cringy pop-culture references. Instead, the film treats its young characters as human beings. Revolutionary, right? Whereas a lot of movies and TV shows display young characters as talking sacks of angst who occasionally spit out scathing comebacks, “Love, Simon” portrays them as people. The film is full of dialogue that has no relation to plot, character development or comic relief. Characters talk about how they do their hair, how they like their coffee and other everyday topics. The dialogue is simply there to humanize the characters and make them seem like people rather than actors. Its refreshing to see characters fumble with words, say “um,” and have awkward silences when other movies seem like nothing more than an exchange of witty lines.

Another reason I felt the film was fit for my generation is a bit paradoxical. There were a few scenes in the movie that were silly and surreal. One was the lengthy musical sequence showing Simon’s vision of being openly gay in college, complete with brightly-colored, singing dancers and gay pride flags in the background. The other is this scene that depicts Simon imagining what it would be like if straight people had the burden of coming out (which reminds me of the slur-slinging sequence in “Do The Right Thing”). The inclusion of these sequences shows that the film isn’t trying to be a study of teen life; it's meant to be entertaining and elicit feelings from viewers. Without any silly scenes, it might’ve felt like the film was made by an out-of-touch director afraid to take any risks lest he seem out-of-touch. It sounds like a stretch, but those scenes stood out to me as distinctly 2018.

“Love, Simon” was not without its flaws with regard to depiction of teenagers. The film stuck to the stereotype of the school bully, featuring snickering gangs of boys calling the gay kids “fags” in the hall. They went so far as to stand on a cafeteria table and pantomime sex while laughing at the recently exposed Simon. Nobody does that. I can excuse it, as the film needed a way of showing the adversity kids face when coming out, but it could’ve been done in a more nuanced way. For example, the vice principal assumes Simon and Ethan are dating because they are the only two openly gay kids at the school. That felt more realistic to me than two weirdos pretending to have sex on a cafeteria table just to pick on a gay kid.

The other cinematic stereotype perpetuated by the movie was Simon’s family. There were at least two scenes where Simon woke up and skipped around the brightly-lit kitchen, exchanged banter with his dad while taking a single bite of his sister’s homemade breakfast, kissed his mom on the cheek and skipped out the door to go to school. Something about that scene must pull in revenue, because it’s in nearly every film that has a family in it.

“Love, Simon” captured the “2018 teenager” aesthetic flawlessly, but it wouldn’t have been a film without a story. The movie shines because it is a story about someone who could be any one of us. The easy route to making a movie about a gay high schooler would be “gay kid scared to come out, gay kid finally come out, gay kid realize people are okay with him being gay, gay kid happy.” “Love, Simon” is so much more than that. It follows Simon through emotions everyone feels: embarrassment, panic, shame, anxiety and loneliness (but also love, joy and contentment). The movie made me feel as though I was with Simon, not just feel for him. One example of this is when Simon’s secret is leaked and he throws himself onto his bed. His screaming and crying are drowned out by a suffocating ringing/searing noise. This audio choice perfectly encapsulates the feeling of anguish that comes from embarrassment, panic and lack of control.

“Love, Simon” is one of the few movies with the ability to make me tear up. Its depiction of teenage life makes it feel like a film that could happen in the real world if real life were better-lit and the people were more attractive and well-dressed. Most importantly, “Love, Simon” is an important piece of mainstream media that features LGBT characters as more than comedic relief or “the gay kid.” It shouts that no matter who you are, we’re all in it together. I think that’s worth a bit of artistic liberty.