Parting Glances **** (1986, John Bolger, Richard Ganoung, Steve Buscemi) – Classic Movie Review 8867

Writer-director Bill Sherwood’s 1986 Queer Cinema drama Parting Glances is a powerful bittersweet look at New York gay life in the Eighties, with funny, touching and heart-breakingly tragic moments.

Writer-director Sherwood works little wonders with his story of two male lovers, New York gay couple Michael and Robert (Richard Ganoung and John Bolger), about to split up when Robert (Bolger) leaves the city for a job abroad, a two-year work assignment in Africa. Writer Michael (Ganoung) confronts Robert’s true motives for leaving, while Michael’s old boyfriend, a rock singer called Nick (Steve Buscemi), finds out that he is living with AIDS.

Parting Glances is a sharp taste of the Big Apple in the Eighties and its sometimes oddball but likeable inhabitants, giving an insightful view of relationships. Especially given the circumstances, it is surprisingly positive and brave.

Parting Glances is made cheaply but well.

Bronski Beat’s ‘Why’ brings back the sounds of the era.

Also in the cast are Adam Nathan, Patrick Tull, Kathy Kinney, Patrick Tull, Yolande Bavan, Richard Wall, Jim Selfe and Kristin Moneagle.

Tragically, Sherwood died as a result of AIDS himself in 1990, aged 37, and it is his only film. A gifted violinist, he was a student in composition under Elliott Carter at the Juilliard School and graduate of Hunter College before he turned film director.

In April 2019, Buscemi honoured his late wife, Jo Andres, who passed away unexpectedly in January 2019. ‘I want to thank my family, who’ve been so supportive. My parents, my brothers and also my son and also my wife Jo. We knew each other going back to Parting Glances. She was my inspiration.’ The couple have one son, Lucian Buscemi, born in 1990.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8867

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