1985

Yen Tan’s coming-out story, set at the height of the AIDS epidemic, would have been groundbreaking in the titular year, but now comes across like a throwback to an earlier time. Twentysomething Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) returns to small-town Texas from New York City to spend Christmas with his parents Dale (Michael Chiklis) and Eileen (Virginia Madsen), and younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford). Eileen is welcoming, but Dale is gruff and distant, and Andrew is going through a rough adolescent patch, with classmates taunting him. Adrian arrives with expensive gifts and he gushes about his promotion at work, but his manner suggests it is all a pose, and the truth comes out when he visits his erstwhile girlfriend (Jamie Chung) in Dallas. Before long we know the reality of Adrian’s life in New York and his likely fate. One can admire 1985 for its good intentions: Adrian’s final gesture of leaving a note behind for Andrew—encouraging him to be himself and assuring him that things will get better—serves as a time-capsule message to young people of today who might be struggling with their sexual identity, making for a positive conclusion to a poignant story. Yet much of the film feels stiff, with Smith so rigid in the role of Adrian that he comes across more as a symbol than a person. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)