Love, Simon (2018)

In less than seven minutes, Black Iris Film Production's and  Simon Santos's Is He? is everything you want in a rom-com. It's light, fun, funny, and with a moment of thoughtful social commentary. In addition, all cast members are representative of the AAPI community.

Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love. And everyone needs a bestie like Yumi because through her unyielding persistence, despite Mark's timid reluctance, you know beneath it all is love. Though proceed cautiously whenever Yumi utters, "Oooooh, that's a cutie," because she's not always the best judge of who just might be into you.

Even in its brevity, Is He? offers a dose of consciousness. Mark laments how unfair it is that he can't simply approach a man he finds attractive as Yumi can do. In a funny flashback, we see Mark being chased by a would-be paramour. Though comedic, it's also a reality check. And a needed moment as the LGBTQ community in the U.S. is currently in the crosshairs of political divisiveness. What better way to receive this message than inside a rom-com?

Is He? is well-written, well-paired, and well-acted and brings to mind Love, Simon, The Half of It, and The Kissing Booth, to name a few. And like all good rom-coms, there's a happy ending, satisfying the audience but also making you want more of Mark's hapless romance and Yumi's "Oooooh, that's a cutie."

Season 1 of Love, Victor (the spinoff show of Love, Simon) ended on a major cliffhanger: Victor came out to his parents. He said the words “I’m gay” for the first time. Now what? 

Season 2 answers the question: “What happens after coming out?” It’s a question less touched upon than “Am I gay?” Mass media seems to treat coming out as a singular hurdle to overcome. No. When you’re not straight, you’re constantly coming out (if you so choose or are forced to), over and over again, constantly dealing with how different environments and people treat your queerness. Love, Victor season 2 explores that, making this season much more complicated, compelling, and mature than the first.

We begin with Victor in his “perfect summer bubble”. Things at home are still rocky, but Victor’s social and romantic life are pretty much perfect. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and Victor must return to school and come out to everyone. In a slightly cringeworthy but unfortunately necessary moment, Victor stands on a chair and proclaims to the school hallways that he’s gay. It’s a bittersweet moment: bitter because he has to open himself up to all kinds of scrutiny and bigotry because that’s the world we live in, and sweet because he finally gets to be himself and be openly happy with Benji. 

Some begin to treat him as if he was their certified Gay Best Friend. Others ostracize him, specifically the basketball team. Victor must decide if he wants to be part of a team who won’t accept him (luckily most of them do in the end). This is where one of the first wedges is driven between Benji and Victor: Benji generalizes all sports teams and players as straight, stereotypically masculine dumb jocks. But Victor still identifies with them because he loves basketball and he’s talented at it; it’s a part of his identity -- one of the parts Benji struggles to accept. (Fortunately, Benji comes to support it later.)

Love, Simon (2018) based on the book “Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda” (by Becky Albertalli) is a teen LGBTQ+ rom-com with themes of longing to find others with similar struggles, and ultimately is a story of acceptance of identity from those around you, and most importantly, from yourself.

Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), as he affirms, is your average senior in high school living an ordinary life surrounded by friends and family he holds healthy relationships with. The one catch: he is gay and hasn’t come out to anyone despite acknowledging he knows most of the people around him would take it well. It’s only when another student from his school confesses online to being gay under the faux name Blue that Simon take a leap of faith to reach out to him, and confide his own closeting. He does this under his fake name, “Jaques”, and the two converse for a time getting to know each other better and developing feelings for one another, taking solace in each other's company as they are the only ones they can talk to about being gay. It’s only when the character of Martin Addison (Logan Miller) finds out Simon is gay from reading the emails he shared with Blue left open on a school computer that things take a turn. Martin then blackmails him in order to get closer to Simon’s friend Abby Suso (Alexandra Shipp), leading Simon to manipulate her and the rest of his friend group in order to keep him from being outed.

Simon's character carries a strong sense of relatability. The feelings he expresses are nearly universal with the anxiety he has at first communicating with Blue, his rewording of messages he chooses to send him, the constant checking of his phone to see if he has messaged. Even for a viewer who isn’t gay, these are feelings that transcend orientation. Likewise, the panic we see when Simon is confronted by Martin knowing he’s gay, and then when he’s finally outed is heart-wrenching. While maybe not the majority of people have experienced that exact scenario, it’s likely we’ve all had a moment in our lives where we panicked about sensitive information being exposed, especially in high school.