"Love, Victor" is a sort of sequel to the queer mainstream love letter of John Hughes films of the 80's & 90's called "Love, Simon". Originally meant for the Disney+ channel but they felt the concent was too mature for an audience raised on violent Marvel movies. I guess two men kissing is still too much but cities being destroyed and people dying are not.
Now, I personally think "Love Simon" is great movie with it breaking a couple of stereotypes and clichés of the gay genre (like the parents being really accepting, one of the two lovers not dying or going back to the closet in the end and a general acceptance from everyone, except of course "Simon" himself). Unfortunately for this one is like they took every cliché of every gay movie and blended all of them in a "been there done that" shake. Still, I admire the overall sweetness present here.
PROS
Michael Cimino is excellent as "Victor". He's sweet, sometimes naive and just overall charming. You can't help but root for the guy.
Michael Cimino's ("Victor") & Anthony Turpel's ("Felix") have great chemistry as the two neighbor best friends and their relationship feels much more fresh.
Anthony Turpel reminds me of a younger Dylan O'Brien back when he was on "Teen Wolf".
George Sear (the love interest) is also very sweet and the few romantic moments with Michael Cimino are lovely.
The rest of the cast is spot on, specially the parents: James Martinez ("One Day At A Time" & Ana Ortiz ("Ugly Betty").
All the little nods to "Love, Simon". I actually enjoyed that this is in fact very connected to that movie.
Using a latino family this time around.
CONS
Obviously since they're a latino family, they have to be dealing with some issues and be a little homophobic.
About 6 to 7 episodes are spent dealing with the straight relationship Rachel Hilson (Mia) & Michael Simino (Victor) which we all know will end eventually and cause drama.
This one has one of the main issues I had with the film. Not much time is spent developing the relationship we should be rooting for: "Victor" and "Benji". But in the original it was understandable because "Blue" was meant to be a surprise reveal. Here we know from the get-go who is who as they don't make any attempts to hide that fact.
I get that maybe this time they wanted to make things a bit more grounded (if that makes sense?), but the entire point of "Love Simon" (at least for me) is to be a typical rom-com made for the lgbtttq+ community. Like what would happen if you made something like "Sixteen Candles" and queer it up a little. I don't know if that makes sense.
This reviews sounds like I'm totally hating but I'm really not. I enjoyed the series a lot and ate the whole season in two days (also helps that they're 30 minutes short). The cliffhanger pissed me off a little but I guess they're saving a lot for the second season which I hope gets greenlit. All in all, a very cute and entertaining show.
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