The film stars Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Talitha Bateman, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, and Jorge Lendeborg Jr.

It centers on Simon Spier, a closeted gay teenage boy who is forced to balance his friends, his family, and the blackmailer threatening to out him to the entire high school, while simultaneously attempting to discover the identity of the anonymous classmate whom he has fallen in love with online.

Love, Simon premiered at the Mardi Gras Film Festival on February 27, 2018, and was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox on March 16, 2018.

Critics praised the film for its "big heart, diverse and talented cast, and revolutionary normalcy",[4] characterized it as a "classic",[5][6][7] described it as a "funny, warm-hearted and life-affirming tale" that is "tender, sweet, and affecting" and a "hugely charming crowd-pleaser" that is "funny, heartfelt, and truly touching",[8][9][5][6] and compared it to the teen films of John Hughes.

After learning his secret, Martin threatens to out Simon by making his emails public unless he helps him win over Abby.

On Christmas Eve, to distract people from his own humiliation, Martin outs Simon by posting his emails on the school's gossip site.

After the holidays, Nick and Abby, now a couple, confront Simon about the lies he told and learn that he tried to keep them apart due to Martin's blackmail.

Simon posts a confession on the gossip site apologizing to his friends, seeking out Blue and asking him to meet at the school carnival.

[20] Love, Simon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released by RCA Records and Sony Music Entertainment, on March 16, 2018.

[21] It featured music by several artists including Bleachers, Troye Sivan, Amy Shark, Brenton Wood, The 1975, Normani and Khalid, among others.

His father's jokes about his son's assumed heterosexuality awkwardly reminds Simon of why he waits to come out: he is scared of the change that could result of him being open about his sexual orientation.

As the plot unfolds, Simon becomes more comfortable with revealing his sexual orientation, mentioning that he wants to come out, and know the real identity of his love interest, but Blue is still not ready.

In fact, Blue's identity remains a cliffhanger plot point until the very end of the film, as Simon wonders and imagines several classmates being his pen pal.

Simon wants to fit in not only for his sexual orientation, but also by having a "great love story" in the same manner as his heterosexual parents, friends, and classmates.

It primarily shows up as a barrier to Simon coming out as he experiences the "societal pressure to conform, thereby exemplifying the embodiment of fear in the face of social norms".

[34] The prominent emotion of fear[34] essentially drives the film forward, making acceptance of Simon's sexual orientation by his friends and family a key takeaway.

[35] His relationships with his family and friends are repaired and positively impacted by the end of the film, and he gets to be with his newfound love Bram, who revealed himself to be Blue.

[30] The aspects of comedy and romance of the film finds purpose in alleviating some of the pressures that Simon faces, but also offering the LGBT community some positive representation.

[37] Following the film's release, many celebrities – including Jennifer Garner, Kristen Bell, Neil Patrick Harris, Joey Graceffa, Matt Bomer, Robbie Rogers, Benj Pasek, Tyler Oakley, Martin Gero, Andrew Rannells, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson – bought out theaters and offered free screenings of the film, because they believed it conveyed an important message.

[41] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Tomb Raider and I Can Only Imagine, and was projected to gross $10–12 million from 2,401 theaters in its opening weekend.

[50] On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92%, based on 239 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10, and the critical consensus states that "Love, Simon hits its coming-of-age beats more deftly than many entries in this well-traveled genre – and represents an overdue, if not entirely successful, milestone of inclusion".

[54] Molly Freeman of Screen Rant also gave the film four out of five stars or an Excellent rating and stated that it is a "funny, heartfelt, and truly touching teen romantic comedy that instantly becomes a modern classic for today's generation".

[55] Josh Winning of GamesRadar+ also gave the film four out five stars and described it as a "warm, sensitive and engaging coming-out-of-ager" and "one of the freshest teen-coms in ages".

[11] Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe also gave the film three and a half out of four stars and stated that it is a "sweet, modern romantic comedy that manages to channel the teen movie classics of the late John Hughes, but only the good stuff".

[58] Brian Truitt of USA Today also gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "Young and old, jocks and nerds, geeks and freaks, and everyone in between should be able to find something to adore in Love, Simon".

[60] Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post also gave the film three out of four stars and described it "as sweet as a pecan pie baked by Dolly Parton".

[63] Peter Debruge of Variety stated that the film "marks an important first, even if the movie is pretty much average in all other respects", but praised the content as "groundbreaking on so many levels, not least of which is just how otherwise familiar it all seems".