Film review by Shweta Parande first published on Mumbai Cinema Paradiso blog for IFFI 2018.

Just when you were starting to think that films on people of the LGBTQI community and their coming out, and especially those affected with the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), were getting too common, comes a new film that seems like a game-changer. The film is '1985', directed by Yen Tan, a 2018 release that was screened at the 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2018) on November 21 in Goa.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that '1985' the movie is a compelling watch and that too, of a relevant subject that is based in the period the film is named after and hence more poignant. IFFI 2018: List of Films under World Panorama Section.

So, if in 2013 we had the beautifully told tragic romance of Emma and Adele in Cannes Palme d'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour (French - La Vie d'Adele), in 2017, it was the American film Call Me by Your Name that caught everyone's attention, right up to The Academy that hosts the annual Oscar Awards.

It is difficult to make films of this topic with some novelty unless it is a real story and a more personal experience. Having AIDS and HIV as a part of such experiences also seems archaic now, with the rise of a number of loyal LGBTQI couples around the globe.

The sensitivity of the subject, unless handled in a totally different manner, is lost if the story of coming out or the struggles of a gay person are shown in a similar fashion as earlier films. It is not necessary that one film is a copy of the other but that the dilemmas and emotions may be similar of the people who are going through a conflict.

Thus, Yen Tan, an American filmmaker of Malaysian origin, had a challenge up his sleeve with 1985. And he has lived up to it as the director and co-writer of one of the most engaging queer films in recent times.

A superbly crafted black and white film, 1985 intrigues you and makes you part of its story. The camera, the suspense, the silences, the background music, the storytelling, the expressions, the setting of the 1980s, and subtle acting of each of its important cast members (the leading man, his younger brother, the mother, the father and the ex-girlfriend) make 1985 a beautiful film without much brouhaha. It is excellent in craft.

For the homophobes:

If you go into watch 1985 not knowing the subject, you will still love it. Although about a gay young man Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) who loses a lover and his job, and still buys expensive Christmas gifts for his family, and does not know how to come out, the struggles of this man and also his younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford) are the same as that of a heterosexual man or woman in a way. That is because the dilemmas and questions of growing up are the same for all of us, aren't they?

It is interesting to note that '1985' is the feature film version of a short film that Yen Tan released in 2016. The film 1985 stars Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis, Jamie Chung and Aidan Langford in powerful performances - each one of them.

Verdict:

As a pre-Jury reviewer of feature-film quality short films for international film festivals, I feel so many of today's short films could be made into feature films. Or maybe not! Short films with a large heart and also web series and television programmes are no less than some of the best feature films we have seen, and they do not necessarily require a larger audience. But if they do, then 1985 will be remembered as one of the best expansions into a feature. I recommend it for film studies.

Rating: 3.5/5

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