Last year, indie cinema delivered a trio of gay dramas that hit hard at the arthouses. Following in the footsteps of 2016's Moonlight were God's Own Country, Beach Rats and Call Me By Your Name, which delivered emotional, searching, fresh perspectives on LGBTQ+ life.

This year, gay cinema has gone mainstream with Love, Simon – and it's about time.

Based on Becky Albertalli's 2015 novel Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda and directed by Greg Berlanti, it follows 17-year-old Simon (Jurassic World's Nick Robinson) as his picture-perfect life is turned upside-down when a fellow student uncovers Simon's big secret: he's gay.

Faced with being prematurely outed, Simon attempts to pacify his blackmailer by setting him up with one of his friends (Alexandra Shipp). But the more Simon manipulates those around him, the unhappier he becomes. Can he take the plunge and reveal his secret to the people he cares about – and, more importantly, should he even have to?

20th Century Fox

There's a reason Love, Simon has already become a phenomenon. It helps that, in the lead up to the film's release, celebrities like Matt Bomer, Neil Patrick Harris and Kristen Bell have been buying out cinemas to help people see the film, giving it a serious injection of A-list support.

"This is an important movie," said Bomer.

Talking exclusively to Digital Spy, Harris explained:

"I was just blown away at how straight-forward and how simple and how easy-going a movie can be, and yet the result is one that is so important and so powerful and so confident.

"It's like I was watching the new version of The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or something. And yet it was about a gay love story. I just thought this was something that… At 44, I'm very proud to see… I can't imagine how excited I would have been to look at this as an example of how to stand tall if I had been 15-16 years old."

He's right.

Because while Brokeback Mountain had Heath and Jake, that was a grown-up film for grown-ups. Love, Simon is for everyone. It's rated PG-13 in the US – one of the first LGBTQ+ films to receive that rating – which makes it a landmark in crowbarring gay stories out of the arthouses and into the lives of those who'll really benefit from it.

But while young and questioning audience members can't fail to connect with Simon's struggle on a deeply emotional level, the film's main strength is that it beautifully taps into a very specific experience while also feeling universal. Love, Simon isn't just about a teen struggling with his sexuality. It's about a teen struggling with life, and everybody can relate to that, right?

20th Century Fox

In his first lead role, Nick Robinson brings a grounded likability to Simon that lends Love, Simon a vital sense of authenticity (even if this is a story populated by very pretty people). Whether dressed up as Lennon at a Halloween party or desperately searching his school for 'Blue', the closeted guy he's befriended online, Simon feels like a real teenager. He's not like the uber-glam catwalk models of Clueless, nor the savage millennials of Mean Girls.

It's a movie of other firsts. The first mainstream teen film to feature a gay kiss. The first to cast openly gay actors in gay roles (Clark Moore is particularly riveting as a student fighting bigotry with scalpel-sharp wit). Its focus on gay issues isn't exclusive, though. Everything about Love, Simon is inclusive. It's a film about outsiders and underdogs all trying to find a way to fit in, and learning they shouldn't have to.

That includes the grown-ups. Simon's teachers are brilliantly eccentric, including a hyperactive Tony Hale as the Vice Principal and a scene-stealing Natasha Rothwell as the drama teacher. But it's Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel who plumb emotional depths as Simon's parents. The latter delivers in a soul-stirring scene that hints adults are still learning, too (and suggests Duhamel really has been coasting all these years).

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Where Hollywood goes from here remains to be seen. A Netflix drama about gay characters is surely on the horizon, while you can bet studios are plundering libraries for other LGBTQ+ stories to adapt. That should be celebrated and absolutely supported, but it could also sort of be missing the point.

Because, yes, Love, Simon takes huge strides forward in a world where gay stories are (and should be) becoming more mainstream, but its greatest strength is that it's a story everybody can relate to. It's a teen film that uses a gay narrative to explore universal truths about identity, community, friendship and deceit.

Pivotally – and this is the revolutionary part – it shows that the 'gay struggle' is everybody's struggle. In highlighting a marginalised community, Love, Simon expertly shows how much a part of society it really is. The only thing that makes Simon different is that he has to hide a part of himself from the rest of the world. And everybody can relate to that, right?

Love, Simon opens in UK cinemas on 6 April. It's out now in the US.

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