Love, Simon, a film
directed by Greg Berlanti, is not exactly faithful to the book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda upon
which it is based, but it surely nails the message that love is for everyone,
that love wins in the end.
Simon, played by Nick Robinson, is a young man who fell in love with Blue
(online alias), a fellow closeted gay high school student he met via the
Internet. Their true identities were a
mystery to each other. They communicated
via e-mail. This mode of courtship brought
me back 20 years earlier, to the film You’ve
Got Mail where Kathleen/Shopgirl (Meg Ryan) fell in love with Joe/NY152
(Tom Hanks) via e-mail. The part where Shopgirl
finally met NY152 – or Simon his great love Blue – still tingles my heart, in a
good way.
Another film I am reminded of is the 1998 British film Get Real because of the high school
setting and the love between two closet homosexuals. Steven (Ben Silverstone) fell for schoolmate
and fling John (Brad Gorton). However,
when he got real in the end, that is, he decided to come out, John stayed
behind (Steven did not out John. He knew
it was John’s call, not his). Get Real is a contrast to Love, Simon because Steven did not get
his happy ending, while Simon got his world colored Blue. Nevertheless, Steven’s heartbreak was palpably
intense, and his coming out was a journey of triumph and a vicarious sort of
deliverance for those – viewers and in-story characters – who remained in the
closet.
Simon’s Blue is Jewish and gay.
The book adaptation of the 1968 play The
Boys in the Band is especially memorable to me because it brought home the
point that Jewish gay men are doubly persecuted – for being gay and for being
Jewish. The 1970 film adaptation has the
same effect. Films that tackle gay life
will always have something in common, and The
Boys in the Band (TBitB) and Love,
Simon (LS) find common ground in how gay men deal with homophobia.
Harold, the Jewish gay man in TBitB, only had his circle of gay friends
for support. Simon’s Blue had non-gay
folks who loved him. The 48-year
interval between the two films made clear that the mindset of yesteryears
is no longer exactly the same as the mindset of today. There is still homophobia, but we are now better equipped to counter such malevolence. Same-sex marriage is now legal in a number of countries. We make progress slowly but surely. Love wins.
Never Been Kissed is a 1999 film starring
Drew Barrymore as Josie Geller and Michael Vartan as Sam Coulson. Josie, working for the Chicago Sun-Times, went undercover to report on what high school was
like “these” (the 1990s) days. Sam (a
teacher) and Josie (a student) gravitated towards each other, but Sam found out
he was just a story and got hurt. To
make up for it, Josie published her love for Sam and people in the school, and
asked Sam to kiss her in front of a crowd in a baseball field before a
game. People cheered Josie on as she
waited for Sam to come to the field to give her her first kiss. It was quite a spectacle with media coverage
to boot.
The Broken Hearts Club (TBHC), a 2000
film directed by Greg Berlanti, broached the idea that when you’re a newbie,
there are a lot of possibilities (other men are possible lovers and friends),
only to find out that you’re the possibility.
In LS, Simon thought of his classmates and other men he knew as possibly
Blue. Also, both TBHC and LS questioned
why there is a need for gay men to come out.
Simon found the courage to come out on his own terms, declare his love for Blue and ask
Blue to meet him in person by posting a message on a Web site known to the
student body. The meeting place? The Ferris wheel at the carnival. This is one of the differences that the film
made from the book. In the book, it was
a private thing between Simon and Blue. Yes, the Ferris wheel was the point of no return, but they were supposed to meet there without the
world knowing about it. In the film,
Simon’s public declaration allowed his friends and well-wishers to cheer him on
as he waited for Blue at the Ferris wheel – and to give him support in case of
a heartbreak. This spectacle, of course,
brought me back to Never Been Kissed. Apart from the e-mail, meeting the mystery
lover only at the end of the film gave me back You’ve Got Mail.
Some nuances of the book got lost in translation, but Simon’s public
declaration makes the film, in a way (not totally, just in a way), better. It is not everyday that we see a young adult
film (from a major motion picture company) where the gay protagonist affirms
himself. Believe it or not, this film
will have its positive effects days and years from now. But for now, the film gives a vicarious sort
of deliverance for those still in the closet – and a sort of flashback for us
aging and aged gay men.
With TBHC and LS, Berlanti seems to be making a handbook or a guide to living
and loving as a gay man. Love, Simon tackles young love; TBHC
deals with adult gay men including a geriatric gay couple. Perhaps, a full-on geriatric gay love story
in the future?
For writers, creators, directors, et al., their body of work is their
love letter to the world. I imagine
Berlanti writing as Simon:
Dear Dorothy,
You’re not in Kansas anymore, although I’m sure you already know that
even in Kansas love matters.
Gay love is real.
I am here.
Love,
Simon
POSTSCRIPTS
William Shakespeare’s As You Like
It was being taught by Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan) when Josie Geller (Drew
Barrymore) went undercover in Never Been
Kissed.
Purple Guy, a character in The
Broken Hearts Club, quoted Shakespeare’s As You Like It in his eulogy for his lover.
Tommy (Michael Vartan) was squeezed and led by the balls, for
disrespecting women, by Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) in Too Wong Foo, Thanks for EverythingI Julie
Newmar, a 1995 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) film.
“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” said Dorothy (Judy
Garland) to her dog Toto (Toto) in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The line
is one of the most famous movie lines in popular culture and is not found in
the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
upon which the film is based. Judy
Garland is a gay icon.
In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Nick Robinson said that his
brother “came out around the same time that” they “started filming” Love, Simon.
Greg Berlanti has made quite a name for himself. He wrote episodes of the TV series Dawson’s Creek, Jack & Bobby, etc. Dawson’s Creek had gay characters. Berlanti co-created Jack & Bobby which also had a gay character and an episode* about
another gay man taking his own life.
Berlanti also co-produced and co-wrote the superhero film Green Lantern. For more
about Berlanti, kindly search Google (or the search engine of your choice).
REFERENCES
Albertalli, Becky. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. 2015.
New York: Balzer + Bray, 2018.
The Boys in the Band. Dir. William Friedkin. Perf. Kenneth Nelson, Leonard Frey. Leo Productions, 1970. Film.
The Broken Hearts Club. Dir. Greg Berlanti. Perf. Timothy Olyphant, Zach Braff, Andrew
Keegan. Meanwhile Films, 2000. Film.
Crowley, Mart. The Boys in the Band. 1968.
New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1969.
Get Real. Dir. Simon Shore. Perf. Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton. Graphite Films (Get Real) Ltd & Distant
Horizon Ltd, 1998. Film.
Love, Simon. Dir. Greg Berlanti. Perf. Nick Robinson. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and TSG Entertainment Finance LLC, 2018. Film.
Never Been Kissed. Dir. Raja Gosnell. Perf. Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1999. Film.
You’ve Got Mail. Dir. Nora Ephron. Perf. Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks. Warner Bros., 1998. Film.
OTHER REFERENCES
* “The Lost Boys.” Writ. Barbie
Kligman. Dir. Bryan Gordon. Jack
& Bobby. The WB. 17 Nov. 2004.
Television.
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill Co., 1900.
TheEllenShow. “Nick Robinson on
His Brother Coming Out While Filming ‘Love, Simon.’” Online video clip. YouTube.
YouTube, 14 Mar. 2018. Web. 15 Mar. 2018.
<www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WI36kJ7Rbs>.
To Wong Foo, Thanks for
Everything! Julie Newmar. Dir.
Beeban Kidron. Perf. Wesley Snipes,
Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo.
Universal City Studios and Amblin Entertainment, 1995. Film.
The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. Perf. Judy Garland, Toto. Loew’s Incorporated (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer),
1939. Film.
