''I Am Michael'' is a 2015 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

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 ...

written and directed by Justin Kelly. Based on the journalist

Benoit Denizet-Lewis Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a writer with ''The New York Times Magazine'', a ''New York Times'' best-selling author, and a tenured professor of writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College. Background A citizen of both France and the United ...

' ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' article "My Ex-Gay Friend", the film stars

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...

Zachary Quinto Zachary John Quinto (; born June 2, 1977) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his roles as Sylar, the primary antagonist from the science fiction drama series ''Heroes (American TV series), Heroes'' (2006–2010); Spock in th ...

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991 Additional on October 9, 2016) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television projects of the horror film, horror and thriller (genre), thriller genres, she has received List of awar ...

, and

Charlie Carver Charles Carver Martensen (born July 31, 1988) is an American actor and screenwriter. His best known roles include Porter Scavo on the ABC television series '' Desperate Housewives'', Ethan on the MTV television series ''Teen Wolf'', Scott Fros ...

. Franco plays Michael Glatze, a gay activist who renounces

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

and becomes a Christian pastor. Filming ran 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 ...

from August 11 to August 30, 2014. The film was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

on January 27, 2017, by

Brainstorm Media Brainstorm Media is a full service American film distributor and production company based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1995, it is recognized for its expertise in video on demand, TV, and theatrical release strategies. In addition to distr ...

Premise

Based on a true story, the film depicts gay activist Michael Glatze, who rejects homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor.

Cast

as Michael Glatze *

as Bennett *

as Rebekah *

as Tyler *

Avan Jogia Avan Tudor Jogia (; born February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor. He first received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film '' A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story'' (2006). After moving to the United States in his late te ...

as Nico Gladstone * Devon Graye as Cory *

Leven Rambin Leven Rambin is an American actress. She is known for playing look-alike half-sisters Lily Montgomery and Ava Benton on ''All My Children'', and for her recurring roles on ''Grey's Anatomy'' and '' Gone'', as well as '' Terminator: The Sarah Con ...

as Catherine *

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

as Deborah *

Lesley Ann Warren Lesley Ann Warren (born August 16, 1946) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 1963, aged 17, in '' 110 in the Shade''. In 1965 she received wide recognition for playing the title role in the television musical prod ...

as Susan *

Blake Lee Blake Lee (born August 31, 1983) is an American actor, known for his roles on ''Mixology'', ''Parks and Recreation'' and the Freeform hit '' Cruel Summer''. Blake and his husband Ben Lewis made history starring in ''The Christmas Setup'', Lifeti ...

as Benoit *

Kevin Cahoon Kevin Cahoon (born July 21, 1971) is an American actor, director, writer, and singer-songwriter. Early life Kevin Cahoon was born on July 21, 1971, in Houston, Texas. Cahoon began his performing career at the age of six as 'The World's Younges ...

as Peter

Production

On April 1, 2014,

was added to the film to play Michael Glatze, a gay activist who later renounced homosexuality. Justin Kelly was set to direct the film ''Michael'' based on

' ''

'' article "My Ex-Gay Friend", while

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultur ...

would executive produce the film. On July 14,

, and

Chris Zylka Chris Zylka (born Christopher Michael Settlemire; born May 9, 1985) is an American actor and model, known for his roles in the films ''Shark Night'' (2011), ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2012), Doyce Plunk in the TV series ''Zeke and Luther'' (2009� ...

joined the cast of the film. Quinto would play Bennett, the former boyfriend of Franco's character, Roberts would play his girlfriend, and Zylka would play another past love interest. Director Justin Kelly said that "this isn't just a story about an 'ex-gay', it's actually a very relatable story about the power of belief and the desire to belong". On August 14,

joined the film to play Tyler, who gets involved in a relationship with Michael and Bennett and is heartbroken when Michael rejects homosexuality. On August 15,

joined the film as Nico, a young man whom Michael meets and falls for along his journey. On August 18,

joined the film's cast to play Quinto's character's mother. On August 25,

joined the film to play Deborah, who runs a Colorado Buddhist retreat where Michael goes to find solace.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on August 11, 2014, in

as actor Franco shared images from the set. On August 20, Franco was spotted during filming on Ocean Avenue in

East Rockaway East Rockaway is a village in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,818 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of East Rockaway is at the edge of Rockaway Peninsula Proper in th ...

. The production wrapped on August 31, 2014 in Baldwin, New York. Also present in film is Musician/Artist Soda, seen as a dancer in a few scenes. He also supplied artwork for the set. This is notable to mention as he is an alumnus of East Rockaway High School under his birth name.

Release

The film was released at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and also screened in the Panorama section of the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

. It received its California premiere during the 17th FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival. The film was the opening night film of the

Frameline Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

on June 18, 2015 at the

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street in the Castro District, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façad ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

acquired distribution rights to the film, and set the film for a

and through

on January 27, 2017.

Reception

The film drew mostly mixed reviews. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 35 reviews, and an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''I Am Michael'' takes a determinedly balanced approach to its complex subject, and although the results don't always add up, they're anchored by strong work from James Franco." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average". Peter Debruge of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote, "An unusually nuanced

carries this complex portrait of a man who

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

and fought to encourage other

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

youth before converting to conservative Christianity," but concluded that the film was too dry and kept the title character too distant and veiled in its attempt to be impartial. Boyd van Hoeij wrote in ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', "Thankfully, the screenplay doesn't portray the story in simple terms of good or evil, but that doesn't mean that there's quite enough nuance or insight to constantly elevate the material above the level of a well-made-but-TV-ready biopic." ''

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

s Eric Kohn gave the film a B+ grade.

References

External links

* * {{Justin Kelly 2015 films 2015 biographical drama films 2015 directorial debut films 2015 LGBT-related films 2000s in LGBT history American biographical drama films American LGBT-related films Ex-gay movement Films about LGBT and Christianity Films based on newspaper and magazine articles Films set in the 2000s Films shot in New York City Gay-related films LGBT-related drama films LGBT-related films based on actual events 2010s English-language films 2010s American films LGBT-related biographical films