1985

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 !

1985 (2018) was written and directed by Yen Tan. It stars Cory Michael Smith as Adrian, a young gay man who is out of the closet in NYC, but still in the closet in Fort Worth. Adrian is handsome and athletic. He doesn't look or act like the stereotyped version of a gay man.

His parents are working class evangelicals. All they want is for Adrian to marry Carly, the girl friend he left behind. (Jamie Chung, a Korean-American portrays Carly. It's interesting that no one objects to Adrian marrying an Asian-American woman.) Virginia Madsen plays Eileen, Adrian's loving mother. Michael Chiklis portray's Adrian's father Dale, who fulfills the stereotyped image of a tough, blue-collar right-wing guy.

This movie could have been a simple coming-out story, but it isn't. There are complexities within each character, and there are unexpected moments of love and concern.

We saw this film at The Little Theatre, as part of ImageOut, the excellent Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.

1985 carries a weak IMDb rating of 6.8. I think it's better than that.

P.S. In a brilliant piece of programming, ImageOut showed the movie "Buddies" on the same day as it showed 1985. Buddies was produced in 1985. It was the first movie that openly referred to the HIV/AIDS crisis. The year 1985 was a really bad year to be gay.

I really loved the movie, it made me cry a lot and made me think about it many days after. It was quite confusing to me, and there could have been more "power" in the film, meaning that at some scenes, it seemed a bit weak, which is why I'm not giving it a full 10. I really liked the grey and white filter and how it's all kind of building up to the moment of truth. Overall, really great and beautiful film.

Wholesome and heartbreaking all at once. One of the most beautiful films I've even seen.

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.