''1985'' is a 2018 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Yen Tan Yen Tan (born 1975) is a Malaysian-born American independent film producer and director. Early life Tan emigrated from Malaysia at the age of 19 and is based in Dallas, Texas. Career He is known for award-winning films ''Happy Birthday (2002 fi ...

and starring

Cory Michael Smith Cory Michael Smith (born November 14, 1986) is an American actor, known for his role as Edward Nygma / The Riddler in the Fox television drama series '' Gotham''. He appeared in '' Camp X-Ray'' in 2014. He appeared in 2013 in '' Breakfast at T ...

Virginia Madsen Virginia Gayle Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress and film producer. She made her film debut in ''Class'' (1983), which was filmed in her native Chicago. After she moved to Los Angeles, director David Lynch cast her as Pri ...

Michael Chiklis Michael Charles Chiklis ( born August 30, 1963) is an American actor, television director, television producer and musician. He is best known for his role as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama ''The S ...

, Aidan Langford, and

Jamie Chung Jamie Jilynn Chung (born April 10, 1983) is an American actress and former reality television personality. She began her career in 2004 as a cast member on the MTV reality series '' The Real World: San Diego'' and subsequently through her appe ...

. The film is an expansion of an earlier

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

of the same name that Tan released in 2016.

Premise

In 1985, Adrian Lester returns home to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

to visit his family for Christmas after several years of living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Adrian, a closeted

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

man, has come to tell his family goodbye, but does not want to disclose to them that he is dying of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

Cast

Production

The film is a feature-length adaptation of a short film of the same name that was released in 2016. Writer and director Yen Tan said the basis for the films were his experiences of interacting with people who were living with HIV and AIDS at his first job after graduating from college. The original short film, which starred

Lindsay Pulsipher Lindsay Pulsipher (born May 6, 1979) is an American actress. She has had several roles in film and television and is known for her series regular role as Rose Lawrence on A&E Network's '' The Beast'' (2009). She joined the third season of HBO's ...

and Robert Sella, centered on a young man with AIDS preparing to move back in with his estranged mother. Unlike the short film, the feature is shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

and in

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

. Filming took place from May to June 2017.

Release

The film premiered in March 2018 at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

. It subsequently screened at a number of LGBT and general-interest film festivals, including as the opening gala at the 2018

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Out On Screen (formally the Vancouver Out On Screen Film & Video Society) is an LGBT-oriented arts organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It began as a small, community-based film festival in 1988 and was registered as a BC soc ...

. The movie's DVD and digital release was in December 2018. It also was released in the United Kingdom by

Peccadillo Pictures Peccadillo Pictures is a UK-based film producer and distributor of art house, gay and lesbian, independent and world cinema. They have provided distribution for many films such as ''Weekend (2011 film), Weekend'', ''Tomboy (2011 film), Tomboy'', ...

, and was released in Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

Reception

On review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''1985'' has an approval rating of 96% based on 52 reviews. The site’s critics consensus reads, "''1985'' pays tribute to a generation of lost lives with a powerfully made look at how HIV and the social attitudes surrounding homosexuality affect one man's choices."

Glenn Kenny Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for ''The New York Times'' and '' RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "Cory Michael Smith’s performance as Adrian is a quiet marvel in a movie that’s superbly acted all around. The film’s intimate consideration of still-enormous issues is intelligent, surprising and emotionally resonant." ''ABC News'' also reviewed the film positively, writing, "Most of the scenes are staged between Adrian and one other person, and this decision to draw out the intimacy of the pair in the frame accentuates the poignancy of things not said." ''1985'' was given multiple prizes like the Grand Jury Prize at the

Texas Competition, the Festival Best Feature at FIRE!! Mostra, the Audience Award and the Student Jury Prize at the

Champs-Élysées Film Festival The Champs-Élysées Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Paris, France. The festival consists of French and American feature-length films and short films. There are competitive films that may be eligible for several awar ...

in Paris, the Grand Jury Award and the Best Screenwriting award at the Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival and the awards of: Best Feature Film, Best Writer for

, Best Actor for

, Best Supporting Actor for

, Best Supporting Actress for

at the Queen Palm International Film Festival.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, 1985_2018 *
Home for Christmas
' an interview with

at ''Eye for Film'' 2018 films 2018 independent films 2018 drama films 2018 LGBT-related films American drama films American Christmas drama films American LGBT-related films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Yen Tan Films set in Texas Films set in 1985 Gay-related films HIV/AIDS in American films LGBT-related drama films American black-and-white films Films shot in 16 mm film Features based on short films 2010s American films