1985 **** (2018, Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis, Aidan Langford, Jamie Chung) – Classic Movie Review 12,360

Cory Michael Smith is excellent as the gay man who returns home to his Dallas, Texas, family for one last Christmas, in the moving 2018 American drama film 1985.

The moving 2018 American drama film 1985 is directed by the Malaysian-born American film director Yen Tan and stars Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis, Aidan Langford, and Jamie Chung. This warm drama of acceptance, forgiveness and farewell is delicately written by Yen Tan, exquisitely well done, and beautifully acted.

Cory Michael Smith is excellent as the gay man who returns home to his Dallas, Texas family for one last Christmas in 1985, and they are lucky to have Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis aboard as the conservative, religious-minded mom and dad, because their quality shines out like a beacon. It is strikingly shot in effective, unexpected black and white and in 16 mm, with photographer HutcH showing a good eye for a great composition. HutcH also edits the film with Yen Tan, and co-writes the story with him, and produces with Ash Christian.

Adrian Lester (Cory Michael Smith) is a closeted gay man has come to tell his family a final goodbye after several years of living in New York City. Adrian, but does not want to tell them he is gay or that he is dying of AIDS. He struggles to reconnect meaningfully with mom Eileen (Virginia Madsen) and dad Dale (Michael Chiklis), his younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford) and his long-time best friend Carly (Jamie Chung), who feels dissed by him. It turns out these are all good people, all struggling to get by.

Michael Chiklis has one marvellous long scene when he has a wee-small-hours beer with his son in the garden, the first ever, in which he reveals his feelings and his knowledge of his son. The scene is mostly just one long take in long shot, and it’s a gem, with a tour-de-force by Chiklis. Virginia Madsen has several good scenes, but the best is her farewell to her son in the car at the airport. It’s a heartstopper tearjerker, and Madsen’s right in there for it. These two scenes play, like most of the film, between Adrian and one other person, which works well in terms of emotional intensity and intimacy. The film could easily be a carefully opened-out filmed play, but this time it is not.

It is an expansion of Yen Tan’s 2016 short film.

The cast are Cory Michael Smith as Adrian Lester, Virginia Madsen as Eileen, Michael Chiklis as Dale Lester, Jamie Chung as Carly, Aidan Langford as Andrew, Ryan Piers Williams as Marc, and Bryan Massey as Pastor John.

Filming took place from May to June 2017. The film premiered on 9 March 2018 at SXSW and was the opening gala at the 2018 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. The DVD and digital releases were in December 2018. It was released in the UK by Peccadillo Pictures.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,360

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