Love, Simon: at last Hollywood is saying ‘I’m gay’

As social attitudes evolve, mainstream cinema has begun to treat gay love stories like any other romance.

Love, Simon proves the pointThe coming-out movie, commonly found on the film festival or arthouse circuit rather than at a multiplex, has always been a reliable source of angst.

For a sign of how times have changed, try this: at a London preview last week of Love, Simon, a glossy rom-com about a Us high-school student (Nick Robinson) inching slowly out of the closet, audience members were invited to ride a giant Love, Simon ferris wheel in Leicester Square in homage to the film’s giddy, fun-fair climax.

There were few takers –well, it was raining – but that’s not the point.

Even Beautiful Thing in 1996, which represented the previous benchmark for making a mainstream coming-out story that wouldn’t scare the horses, never had a ferris wheel erected in its honour.

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