Likewise, specialty divisions of major studios produced “ Brokeback Mountain” and “ Call Me by Your Name.” But the 17-year-old Simon Spier is reminiscent of the characters played by Molly Ringwald in the 1980s heyday of teenage romances like “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink.” Films closer to the tone of “Love, Simon,” like “Edge of Seventeen” (1998) or “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012), were released by boutique studios. An IMDB list of the best gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teenage movies, for example, begins with “My Own Private Idaho” (1991), about two hustlers.
That is, unless he’s walking a darker path. Typically the gay character in a studio-backed teenage romance is the supportive best friend spouting quips and offering sage relationship or fashion advice. The result is a $17 million film that feels timely but also raises the question, Why did it take so long?
That he gets one could almost be considered revolutionary: With “Love, Simon,” 20th Century Fox becomes the first major studio in recent memory to take a chance on a movie anchored by a gay character. In the new teenage romantic comedy “Love, Simon,” the title character, played by Nick Robinson, proclaims, “I’m done living in a world where I don’t get to be who I am.
