Love, Simon is a charming and affecting teen movie that has one foot planted firmly in the past, actively channeling what was special about all the John Hughes "classics", while at the same time pushing this genre into the new millennium with the lead character finding his way into coming out as gay. This is something that you may have seen before, but it's more than likely that you have seen it on TV. While it's kind of futile to speculate why it took so long to get a story like this to movie theaters, part of the movie's appeal is seeing how director Greg Berlanti (Life as We Know It), screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker and a great cast lead by Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) and Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why) find all the ways to illustrate how the lead character's plight is universal and not meant for a niche audience.

The first key to achieving this is to take the best of what John Hughes did in his teen movies (The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful), which means having full dimensional characters who get to display their humanity beyond whatever archetype they could be boxed in, and infusing it with the romance and yearning of a modern romantic comedy. The fact that more than one label applies to this movie seems perfect to the plight of it's lead character. The film opens with a Simon monologue in which he talks about everything that defines his "normal" existence and this is something that requires many labels. He is a son to dotting parents, played by Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel, a supportive big brother, a popular student at his high school and a devoted friend to Leah (Katherine Langford), Abby (Alexandra Shipp) and Nick (Jorge LendeBorg Jr). Simon is also gay and has not admitted this to anyone else in his life.

The plot of the movie is set in motion by a school blog that zeroes in on the possibility of closeted gay students at his school. This leads Simon to establish an anonymous email correspondence with "Blue", another student at his school who has not come out. Love, Simon's best sequences are the one's that foster this relationship and the ones that show the lead character's full romantic yearning. Simon is desperate to find out who Blue is, which leads to fantasies in which he explores the possibilities of who he might be. But the rose is off the bloom when Martin (Logan Miller), a nerdy extrovert, discovers Simon's secret emails and uses it as leverage to try to get a date with Abby.

While this particular story line is necessary for Simon to eventually come out of the closet, it is also the part of the film that feels more predictable. While the spirit of John Hughes is alive and well throughout most of the film and the scenes that develop Simon's relationship with his friends, this part of the story feels closer to a less interesting riff on She's All That, a celebrated but much less worthy contribution to the teen film canon.

Even when it falters, Love, Simon is held together by the honesty of the performances and the deftness and integrity of Berlanti's direction. While the most enjoyable aspects of the film are directly related to the possibility of romance and happiness for the main character, the director finds the way of addressing the emotional weight of Simon's coming out story without pushing the film into a one dimensional After School Special lesson.

LOVE, SIMON is OUT in theaters!