2018·Drama·1h 26m
7.3
★
Having been gone for three years, closeted advertising executive Adrian returns to his Texas hometown and struggles to reveal his dire circumstances to his conservative family.
Directed by Yen Tan
aids
homophobia
texas
family relationships
hiv
in the closet
black and white
lgbt
advertising executive
1980s
gay theme
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Cory Michael Smith
Adrian
Virginia Madsen
Eileen
Michael Chiklis
Dale
Jamie Chung
Carly
Aidan Langford
Andrew
Ryan Piers Williams
Marc
Bryan Massey
Pastor Jon
Bill Heck
Slow Dancer
Tina Parker
Cashier
Crew
Yen Tan
Director
Yen Tan
Screenplay
Yen Tan
Editor
Ash Christian
Producer
Cory Michael Smith
Executive Producer
Kat Candler
Co-Producer
Mark Osborne
Co-Producer
Eric Friend
Sound Designer
Yen Tan
Story
Lisa Normand
Script Supervisor
Kelly Williams
Associate Producer
Jonathan Duffy
Associate Producer
Popular Reviews
96 reviews
Panos
9.5★ · 12/28/25
It broke me again. An hour passed and I’m sobbing just by thinking about it AGAIN. I’m not sure how they did that but they did and I also know exactly how they it cause I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since my first watch. I don’t wanna feel this way ever again but I probably will because I’m gonna watch it again.
It broke me again. An hour passed and I’m sobbing just by thinking about it AGAIN. I’m not sure how they did that but they did and I also know exactly how they it cause I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since my first watch. I don’t wanna feel this way ever again but I probably will because I’m gonna watch it again.
Panos
10.0★ · 09/29/25
NO. OUCCCHHHHH. OUCHHHHHH. AA
NO. OUCCCHHHHH. OUCHHHHHH. AA
Chema
10.0★ · 03/30/26
Can’t believe how much I loved this film, and how much time I waited to watch it. Anyway here’s a another shitty review by me
My best friend in the world, Phillip, told me I should watch this film and that he thought I might rlly like it, but I thought by the title it was a bit corny. Also, he didn’t rlly tell me the actual storyline, so I wasn’t very thrilled to watch it, yk? So he came last week to my city and suggested that we should watch this film.
Honestly from the very beginning I loved it so much.
I rlly connected with Adrian. Also, my family, in aspects of personality, is very similar to his, so everything felt very personal.
Loved the way they tell a lot through the shots. Love the scene where he is walking his dog and he’s in a field and starts crying. It’s a rlly good use of a shot without needing to say a word.
I can’t imagine how hard it was to be queer back in the 80s, the film is base back in AIDS pandemic, even though I love the decade and its style, politically and as a society it was rlly hard and closed. So imagine how hard it was, and how they minimized AIDS.The scene where he comes out to his friend and tells her about his dead lover and that he has AIDS rlly broke my heart. He was just tired and desperate, but knew he couldn’t do anything, and also that he would die soon. I thought maybe that’s why he lied to his parents, for them to remember him as a great man, but honestly the whole scene was just a brick to my face.Also, I think it must be so heartbreaking watching all your friends and community die and people mocking it or not caring, as if they were less valuable, yk? I cried a lot in the scene where his brother listens to his cassette before leaving.Anyway, leaving all the emotional part and my shitty stuff, lol. I love that the whole film is in B&W. It looks so timeless and captures the mood of the film. I think with colors the film wouldn’t catch that emotional feeling they achieved. Also, it is so beautifully written. The monologue he records for his brother is just so beautiful, and every queer lost teen should listen to it honestly.I’m a big fan of grain, so I rlly appreciated that the whole film had a very prominent grain.
Anyway, this film is very special to me. Even though I don’t have AIDS, luckily, thank God, I still relate so much to the movie and its characters. I wish I saw this before, honestly. As always, I might say I can’t rlly put into words how much I love my favorite films, as well as I might probably forget a lot of stuff and technical shit I don’t get but I think by this you get an idea
Honorable recognition to the brother listening to Like a Virgin by Madonna and the gay club scene. lol
please dont die fags, I love you🙂↕️👨🏼🤝👨🏻❤️
My best friend in the world, Phillip, told me I should watch this film and that he thought I might rlly like it, but I thought by the title it was a bit corny. Also, he didn’t rlly tell me the actual storyline, so I wasn’t very thrilled to watch it, yk? So he came last week to my city and suggested that we should watch this film.
Honestly from the very beginning I loved it so much.
I rlly connected with Adrian. Also, my family, in aspects of personality, is very similar to his, so everything felt very personal.
Loved the way they tell a lot through the shots. Love the scene where he is walking his dog and he’s in a field and starts crying. It’s a rlly good use of a shot without needing to say a word.
I can’t imagine how hard it was to be queer back in the 80s, the film is base back in AIDS pandemic, even though I love the decade and its style, politically and as a society it was rlly hard and closed. So imagine how hard it was, and how they minimized AIDS.The scene where he comes out to his friend and tells her about his dead lover and that he has AIDS rlly broke my heart. He was just tired and desperate, but knew he couldn’t do anything, and also that he would die soon. I thought maybe that’s why he lied to his parents, for them to remember him as a great man, but honestly the whole scene was just a brick to my face.Also, I think it must be so heartbreaking watching all your friends and community die and people mocking it or not caring, as if they were less valuable, yk? I cried a lot in the scene where his brother listens to his cassette before leaving.Anyway, leaving all the emotional part and my shitty stuff, lol. I love that the whole film is in B&W. It looks so timeless and captures the mood of the film. I think with colors the film wouldn’t catch that emotional feeling they achieved. Also, it is so beautifully written. The monologue he records for his brother is just so beautiful, and every queer lost teen should listen to it honestly.I’m a big fan of grain, so I rlly appreciated that the whole film had a very prominent grain.
Anyway, this film is very special to me. Even though I don’t have AIDS, luckily, thank God, I still relate so much to the movie and its characters. I wish I saw this before, honestly. As always, I might say I can’t rlly put into words how much I love my favorite films, as well as I might probably forget a lot of stuff and technical shit I don’t get but I think by this you get an idea
Honorable recognition to the brother listening to Like a Virgin by Madonna and the gay club scene. lol
please dont die fags, I love you🙂↕️👨🏼🤝👨🏻❤️
Can’t believe how much I loved this film, and how much time I waited to watch it. Anyway here’s a another shitty review by me
My best friend in the world, Phillip, told me I should watch this film and that he thought I might rlly like it, but I thought by the title it was a bit corny. Also, he didn’t rlly tell me the actual storyline, so I wasn’t very thrilled to watch it, yk? So he came last week to my city and suggested that we should watch this film.
Honestly from the very beginning I loved it so much.
I rlly connected with Adrian. Also, my family, in aspects of personality, is very similar to his, so everything felt very personal.
Loved the way they tell a lot through the shots. Love the scene where he is walking his dog and he’s in a field and starts crying. It’s a rlly good use of a shot without needing to say a word.
I can’t imagine how hard it was to be queer back in the 80s, the film is base back in AIDS pandemic, even though I love the decade and its style, politically and as a society it was rlly hard and closed. So imagine how hard it was, and how they minimized AIDS.The scene where he comes out to his friend and tells her about his dead lover and that he has AIDS rlly broke my heart. He was just tired and desperate, but knew he couldn’t do anything, and also that he would die soon. I thought maybe that’s why he lied to his parents, for them to remember him as a great man, but honestly the whole scene was just a brick to my face.Also, I think it must be so heartbreaking watching all your friends and community die and people mocking it or not caring, as if they were less valuable, yk? I cried a lot in the scene where his brother listens to his cassette before leaving.Anyway, leaving all the emotional part and my shitty stuff, lol. I love that the whole film is in B&W. It looks so timeless and captures the mood of the film. I think with colors the film wouldn’t catch that emotional feeling they achieved. Also, it is so beautifully written. The monologue he records for his brother is just so beautiful, and every queer lost teen should listen to it honestly.I’m a big fan of grain, so I rlly appreciated that the whole film had a very prominent grain.
Anyway, this film is very special to me. Even though I don’t have AIDS, luckily, thank God, I still relate so much to the movie and its characters. I wish I saw this before, honestly. As always, I might say I can’t rlly put into words how much I love my favorite films, as well as I might probably forget a lot of stuff and technical shit I don’t get but I think by this you get an idea
Honorable recognition to the brother listening to Like a Virgin by Madonna and the gay club scene. lol
please dont die fags, I love you🙂↕️👨🏼🤝👨🏻❤️
My best friend in the world, Phillip, told me I should watch this film and that he thought I might rlly like it, but I thought by the title it was a bit corny. Also, he didn’t rlly tell me the actual storyline, so I wasn’t very thrilled to watch it, yk? So he came last week to my city and suggested that we should watch this film.
Honestly from the very beginning I loved it so much.
I rlly connected with Adrian. Also, my family, in aspects of personality, is very similar to his, so everything felt very personal.
Loved the way they tell a lot through the shots. Love the scene where he is walking his dog and he’s in a field and starts crying. It’s a rlly good use of a shot without needing to say a word.
I can’t imagine how hard it was to be queer back in the 80s, the film is base back in AIDS pandemic, even though I love the decade and its style, politically and as a society it was rlly hard and closed. So imagine how hard it was, and how they minimized AIDS.The scene where he comes out to his friend and tells her about his dead lover and that he has AIDS rlly broke my heart. He was just tired and desperate, but knew he couldn’t do anything, and also that he would die soon. I thought maybe that’s why he lied to his parents, for them to remember him as a great man, but honestly the whole scene was just a brick to my face.Also, I think it must be so heartbreaking watching all your friends and community die and people mocking it or not caring, as if they were less valuable, yk? I cried a lot in the scene where his brother listens to his cassette before leaving.Anyway, leaving all the emotional part and my shitty stuff, lol. I love that the whole film is in B&W. It looks so timeless and captures the mood of the film. I think with colors the film wouldn’t catch that emotional feeling they achieved. Also, it is so beautifully written. The monologue he records for his brother is just so beautiful, and every queer lost teen should listen to it honestly.I’m a big fan of grain, so I rlly appreciated that the whole film had a very prominent grain.
Anyway, this film is very special to me. Even though I don’t have AIDS, luckily, thank God, I still relate so much to the movie and its characters. I wish I saw this before, honestly. As always, I might say I can’t rlly put into words how much I love my favorite films, as well as I might probably forget a lot of stuff and technical shit I don’t get but I think by this you get an idea
Honorable recognition to the brother listening to Like a Virgin by Madonna and the gay club scene. lol
please dont die fags, I love you🙂↕️👨🏼🤝👨🏻❤️
Vincent
10.0★ · 03/24/26
Told with sincerity, a family spending their last Christmas as a whole.
It’s so refreshing in how it represents a queer character, Adrian isn’t reduced to his sexuality. We see his complex relationship with his parents—particularly his father who deals with toxic masculinity—and his bittersweet relationship with his younger brother and his childhood friend Carly, not as a “dying gay man” but as a dying man who just happens to be gay. We see him grieve his lost friends and how hopeless he feels. His illness isn’t treated like a commodity—and it isn’t sensationalized—but as a tragedy that affected to many men in the gay community.
Adrian being confronted by his father was so powerful in its subtlety. Adrian himself isn’t necessarily shocked by his father’s lack of acceptance, that assumption was just confirmed to him. This is the reality for so many people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Subtle and almost disappointed reaction to a person’s sexuality is gut wrenching because of it’s quietness and eerie feeling. This film feels like a labor of love. Yen Tan’s directing style is so compatible with the moving performance that Cory Micheal Smith gives.
It’s so refreshing in how it represents a queer character, Adrian isn’t reduced to his sexuality. We see his complex relationship with his parents—particularly his father who deals with toxic masculinity—and his bittersweet relationship with his younger brother and his childhood friend Carly, not as a “dying gay man” but as a dying man who just happens to be gay. We see him grieve his lost friends and how hopeless he feels. His illness isn’t treated like a commodity—and it isn’t sensationalized—but as a tragedy that affected to many men in the gay community.
Adrian being confronted by his father was so powerful in its subtlety. Adrian himself isn’t necessarily shocked by his father’s lack of acceptance, that assumption was just confirmed to him. This is the reality for so many people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Subtle and almost disappointed reaction to a person’s sexuality is gut wrenching because of it’s quietness and eerie feeling. This film feels like a labor of love. Yen Tan’s directing style is so compatible with the moving performance that Cory Micheal Smith gives.
Told with sincerity, a family spending their last Christmas as a whole.
It’s so refreshing in how it represents a queer character, Adrian isn’t reduced to his sexuality. We see his complex relationship with his parents—particularly his father who deals with toxic masculinity—and his bittersweet relationship with his younger brother and his childhood friend Carly, not as a “dying gay man” but as a dying man who just happens to be gay. We see him grieve his lost friends and how hopeless he feels. His illness isn’t treated like a commodity—and it isn’t sensationalized—but as a tragedy that affected to many men in the gay community.
Adrian being confronted by his father was so powerful in its subtlety. Adrian himself isn’t necessarily shocked by his father’s lack of acceptance, that assumption was just confirmed to him. This is the reality for so many people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Subtle and almost disappointed reaction to a person’s sexuality is gut wrenching because of it’s quietness and eerie feeling. This film feels like a labor of love. Yen Tan’s directing style is so compatible with the moving performance that Cory Micheal Smith gives.
It’s so refreshing in how it represents a queer character, Adrian isn’t reduced to his sexuality. We see his complex relationship with his parents—particularly his father who deals with toxic masculinity—and his bittersweet relationship with his younger brother and his childhood friend Carly, not as a “dying gay man” but as a dying man who just happens to be gay. We see him grieve his lost friends and how hopeless he feels. His illness isn’t treated like a commodity—and it isn’t sensationalized—but as a tragedy that affected to many men in the gay community.
Adrian being confronted by his father was so powerful in its subtlety. Adrian himself isn’t necessarily shocked by his father’s lack of acceptance, that assumption was just confirmed to him. This is the reality for so many people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Subtle and almost disappointed reaction to a person’s sexuality is gut wrenching because of it’s quietness and eerie feeling. This film feels like a labor of love. Yen Tan’s directing style is so compatible with the moving performance that Cory Micheal Smith gives.
lalla
10.0★ · 03/01/26
"And in another time, at another place... You're gonna meet the right people."
😭😭😭 This is still one of my favorite queer film ever. I cried like an ugly baby because of so many lines in the movie. It was so beautifully written.
Cory Michael Smith's performance has improved so much ever since his role as The Riddler in Gotham (TV). I'm so so so proud of him.
😭😭😭 This is still one of my favorite queer film ever. I cried like an ugly baby because of so many lines in the movie. It was so beautifully written.
Cory Michael Smith's performance has improved so much ever since his role as The Riddler in Gotham (TV). I'm so so so proud of him.
"And in another time, at another place... You're gonna meet the right people."
😭😭😭 This is still one of my favorite queer film ever. I cried like an ugly baby because of so many lines in the movie. It was so beautifully written.
Cory Michael Smith's performance has improved so much ever since his role as The Riddler in Gotham (TV). I'm so so so proud of him.
😭😭😭 This is still one of my favorite queer film ever. I cried like an ugly baby because of so many lines in the movie. It was so beautifully written.
Cory Michael Smith's performance has improved so much ever since his role as The Riddler in Gotham (TV). I'm so so so proud of him.