1985

...for performances. For white-and-black image. For a story who reflects the rhytm and atmosphere and expectations of a period. For message. And for the emotions ball after its end. A confession - film . Not original, not great. But useful and beautiful. Bitter and large circles of problems, from motherhood and fatherhood to old close friendship and relation between brothers, from gay life and coming up challenge to shadows from "Death of a Salesman" to the indie love stories. Short, a film for feel it. The job of Jamie Chung and Virginia Madsen defines, in splendid way, this special-special drama.

This film is quite good. The movie portrays the struggle with being gay and the family dynamics during the AIDS crisis in 1985, but not with a flashy Hollywood style, but from a realistic and personal side.

Beautiful movie that packs the emotion as it slowly unfolds in front of us.

The performances are really touching and delivered honestly without hype.

I just recommend that you watch it.

An additional note. Congratulations to those who decided to shoot this film in black and white. I have long held the view that colour (I do love colour movies) can often be a distraction from detail and that emotion etc can be overlooked. For example if you take colour away from Transformers (and I do like the first 3!) then you may find the lack of story and depth to be exposed as the colourful, shiny bits are removed. With 1985, the absence of colour allows us to see more.

Special!

Don't read any plot before you watch the film , let you simply walk into his life , fell for him and follow the flows ! And you will be moved and touched by the 1985 !

I walked into this sort of blindly. Not sure what I expected, but I was snowed in and needed something to watch. I swore I was done with films dealing with those horrible, dark times in the 1980's when I lived in NYC and everyone was dying, but there I sat viewing a yet another hopeless life for another young man. All that personal stuff aside, this is well made. It is also well acted especially by the lead, Cory Michael Smith. This is the sad story of a young man leaving his adult life in NYC to return to Texas for Christmas for what he believes to be the last time to see his very religious family. There is nothing surprising here, nothing new. It's exactly what one would expect it to be, but the love some of these characters have for each other is moving. Virginia Madsen plays the young man's mother with such delicacy, which is not unusual for this excellent actress. I was also impressed by Jamie Chung as his lifelong friend/love interest and Aidan Langford as his little brother. Michael Chiklis is also good as the father, but it's a hard role to like, though he eventually wins you over ever so slightly. It's interestingly shot in black and white and it's a very good movie if you can deal with the inevitability of the main character's fate. I, for one, have a hard time doing so anymore, but I suppose we should never forget. For some people, it might be a necessity.