1985

"All the performances are very good (though one might ask why no one has a regional accent), with stage-trained Smith providing a center of quiet intensity."

"The dark inky frames are full of shadows and dread. Yet the narrative, and Adrian's journey, is always leavened with quiet compassion."

"A moving cinematic sketch of a HIV-infected man living through the height of the plague."

"It's a beautifully acted film. In the dark days of the epidemic it would surely have been impossible to make a drama so balanced, so compassionately attuned to everyone's feelings."

"1985 gets the notes right, and its foreboding look takes us back to a dark age. It's a lesson worth remembering. Yet with all the prejudice and pain, the film still feels a lot like a sermon."

"This profoundly resonant, smartly understated black-and-white film greatly benefits from more than 30 years worth of sociosexual perspective that reminds us how much has changed, yet how much else has not."

"Anchored by a deeply felt central performance from Cory Michael Smith, the modest but affecting film should find a receptive niche with LGBT audiences."