Love, Simon has been praised as groundbreaking and is the first mainstream teenage film with a gay lead backed by a major studio.
Audiences have received the movie so well that big stars like Neil Patrick Harris and Kristen Bell have actually bought out cinemas to help people see it.
“It’s really special, and it’s been so humbling,” Becky Albertalli, the writer of the novel Love, Simon was based on, told the BBC. “But most of us were kind of surprised to realize that it was the first of its kind. It just seems like that shouldn’t be the case in 2018. There should have been a lot of films like this! It’s just a sweet rom-com.”
“It’s exciting to be a part of that, because you hope it will open the door, and there will be more and more. But it’s good to get the ball rolling to what I hope is a new era of films moving forwards,” she continued.
“It’s a lot of responsibility though and everyone involved feels the weight of that. It’s hard because this story is just Simon’s story. And then you see a lot of [director] Greg Berlanti’s personal story – it’s a passion project.”
A large number of fans of the movie have taken to Twitter to share their personal stories of how Love, Simon resonated with them. Many have even claimed the movie has encouraged them to come out to their loved ones and friends.
I work at a cinema and two older women bought tickets to Love, Simon and as one of the women walked away, the other one turned to me and said ‘she’s been my best friend for 25 years and I’m going to come out to her at the end of the film’ then walked away and now I’m crying
— ellie (@mockiingjen) April 13, 2018
