Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Love, Simon 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 8, 2018

High school can be an emotional minefield even under the best of circumstances, but kids with additional “baggage” of one sort or another can often find the three or four years they spend in such facilities unbearable at times. One of the interesting things about Love, Simon is that Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) isn’t the social outcast that “different” teenagers often become in high school. In fact, Simon is surrounded not just by a loving family, but also by a retinue of friends who all seem to enjoy him immensely. But there’s always a disconnect between outer reality and inner emotional states even for those who consider themselves “normal” (whatever that means nowadays), and Simon most definitely does not consider himself normal, since he’s harboring the supposedly devastating secret that he’s gay. That “supposedly” is especially salient in the film since even Simon seems to realize that in today’s culture and even more so with regard to the context which Simon finds himself in (namely, those aforementioned loving parents and strong friendships) no one would probably care that much if he just “outed” himself. Why Simon takes a while to get to where this film is obviously going is perhaps not sufficiently explained, but otherwise Love, Simon, while essaying much of the same “teen angst” territory as any number of other at least passingly similar films, has a rather unique perspective on the travails that can confront teens on the cusp of adulthood. There may be a somewhat curious connection for some who have seen the currently running Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen (by Pasek and Paul of The Greatest Showman and La La Land fame) in that emails, including "leaked" emails, play an important part in the story revolving around high school kids trying to come to terms with their own social anxieties, but the only singing and dancing in this film comes courtesy of an arguably needless subplot involving the drama department's production of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, a show which perhaps not so coincidentally tends to at least hint at some sexual "oddities" and even gender confusion.

The “It Gets Better” movement spawned a series of helpful PSAs and hashtags, but some curmudgeons may see Simon’s supposed “lot” in life and posit a “#Hey,You’veAlreadyGotItPrettyGood,Dude” instead (do hashtags allow apostrophes and commas?). That is arguably one of the deficits to the whole subtext (and indeed even the main text) of Love, Simon, and it makes certain elements like a bit of blackmail from another student named Martin (Logan Miller) play a little inauthentically. When Martin himself later gets a bit of social comeuppance, again the film seems to teeter precariously close to cliché territory, despite its focus on a young gay character coming to terms with himself and his place in the world. When you add in parents portrayed by Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner, Simon’s life almost seems like a contemporary update of the “perfection” of Leave It to Beaver, with the “added benefit” that Garner’s character is evidently also a therapist.

Now all of this may lead some to think that the film is well meaning but ineffective, but rather refreshingly, that’s actually not the case. When Simon kind of “meets cute” online with another (initially anonymous) gay kid from his school, it starts a friendship and hopes for something more, though even this plot element might be seen as just another riff on aspects dealt with in films like You've Got Mail. What gives Love, Simon some of its heart and a lot of its breezy comic moments are the natural performances of the leads (a few of the supporting characters, including the drama teacher played by Natasha Rothwell and the vice principal played by Tony Hale, are frankly written on the cartoonish side and so can’t help but come off that way in the acting department). Robinson’s ease with the character helps the film to elide some of its inconsistencies, though, again, there’s an almost willful disconnect between whatever “trauma” Simon is experiencing and the relative cushiness of both his physical and indeed even his emotional life.

What’s ultimately really kind of winning about Love, Simon is how natural and unaffected (from a performance standpoint) the film treats Simon’s sexuality, at least for the most part. Again, some arguably needless interpolations like a vignette documenting "how to dress like a gay guy" seem too silly even for the film's kind of lighthearted take on an obviously serious subject. Elements like that aside, Simon is a kid with smarts and self awareness who at the same time is still emotionally vulnerable and unsure of himself and the screenplay and performances help to bring that dialectic nicely alive. That said, the film charts Simon’s course toward full honesty with perhaps just a bit of subterfuge itself, never really daring to go for some of the real hurt and isolation that many LGBTQ folks obviously feel at times. As such, the film may be a “safe” feeling look at an “alternative reality” for some who aren’t completely comfortable with this particular demographic.

Love, Simon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots were sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

Love, Simon is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. As I mentioned in our Love, Simon Blu-ray review, this is another release where the IMDb kind of oddly omits whether this digitally captured feature was finished at a 2K or a 4K DI (I suspect the former, but would love it if someone could point me to an authoritative source, something I personally haven't been able to find). I was frankly rather pleasantly surprised with how Love, Simon looks in its 4K version, since the film isn't exactly awash in "wow" visuals, something I kind of alluded to in the review of the 1080p Blu-ray version. But there are all of the typical upticks in fine detail that 4K fans like to see, including increased resolution on things like facial features or the bricks in the bathroom stall where Simon finds refuge on a couple of occasions. But to my eyes some of the most appealing differences come courtesy of HDR, with a whole range of interesting new highlights on display. This can be "little" things like how the track at the high school now has more of a rust color, or an increased warmth of the sort of yellow-orange grading that several of Simon's home sequences have. Several of the scenes of Cabaret either in rehearsal or performance have a warmer red tone now. There are both red and orange lighting schemes and/or grading on display in a later party scene, which also looked warmer to me in this version. The single most astounding upgrade in overall palette for me personally was the whimsical fantasy sequence where Simon and a group of kids frolic to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". The saturation of the outfits the kids wear is really remarkable in this 4K version, with some incredibly vivid primaries especially notable.

Love, Simon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Love, Simon is awash in source cues, and the musical elements tend to really buoy the disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in a way that the more intimate dialogue scenes can't. That said, there's consistent immersion here in many of the high school set scenes, where the cacophony of kids in the halls or even the travails of the Cabaret production offer good engagement of the surround channels. Dialogue is always prioritized smartly, and fidelity is fine throughout the audio presentation, with no problems of any kind to report.

Note: As tends to be the case with Fox releases spread across 1080p Blu-ray and 4K UHD formats, the audio and subtitle specs are different on the different discs. The specs above are for the 4K UHD disc. Please consult our Love, Simon Blu-ray review for the specs on that disc.

Love, Simon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only the Commentary track is included on the 4K UHD disc. For a list of supplements included on the 1080p Blu-ray that's part of this package, please see our Love, Simon Blu-ray review.

Love, Simon 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Love, Simon overcomes some of its own perhaps self inflicted deficits by offering really sincere performances and a rather breezy attitude toward inherently weighty subjects that may come off as a little sanguine at times, but which seems to provide assurance that it will indeed get better. I was actually rather pleasantly surprised with the uptick in detail and especially palette highlights on this 4K UHD version. Recommended.