Year of Release: 1989
Director: Norman René
Starring: Campbell Scott, Bruce Davison, Patrick Cassidy, John Dossett, Mary Louise Parker, Stephen Caffrey, Mark Lamos, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Schoeffling, Brian Cousins, Dan Butler, Tony Shalhoub, David Drake
Genre: Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis and Review:
"Longtime Companion" was director Norman René's feature directorial debut, which premiered towards the end of 1989, but made a bigger splash at the Sundance Film Festival of 1990, on a path to further recognition and awards visibility (the film ended up with an Oscar nomination for Bruce Davison as best supporting actor). The film follows the story of a group of friends in the early 80s, between their escapades in Fire Island and their professional lives in Manhattan. This group, largely comprised of gay men, and Lisa, the sole female and sister of one of the guys, start witnessing some news surrounding the emergence of a fatal "gay cancer". As the ailment initially touches one of them, and further information emerges, including proper nomenclature and how the epidemic is being spread, they all react differently to it, some initially with incredulity, until it touches their lives directly and profoundly. The film particularly focuses on Willy, a young trainer, whom we witness as he develops a relationship, and goes through the horror of discovering the horrifying trail of death that AIDS leaves behind.
"Longtime Companion" was one of the first films to tackle the issue of AIDS in the early 90s, back when the subject was still very much a taboo one. It's a film that handles the topic with heart, sensitivity and simultaneously a sense of humor, one that successfully captures the lives of a group of gay men in their 30s/40s, when they had the bulk of their lives ahead, before a death sentence started being handed out to so many of them. It's a film that doesn't demonize or pontificate how that devastating ailment came about - it observes the microcosms of the lives of these men, and how that epidemic touched everyone, even those who were apparently strangers, and yet were all somehow connected. It's excellently cast, with Campbell Scott, Mary Louise Parker, Bruce Davison, Dermot Mulroney, Stephen Caffrey, Mark Lamos, all creating great and nuanced characters, filled with life, fear, sorrow and longing, both for the people their characters witness leaving, but also for a time when life was uncomplicated and safer. A very good film worth watching and revisiting.
"Longtime Companion" was one of the first films to tackle the issue of AIDS in the early 90s, back when the subject was still very much a taboo one. It's a film that handles the topic with heart, sensitivity and simultaneously a sense of humor, one that successfully captures the lives of a group of gay men in their 30s/40s, when they had the bulk of their lives ahead, before a death sentence started being handed out to so many of them. It's a film that doesn't demonize or pontificate how that devastating ailment came about - it observes the microcosms of the lives of these men, and how that epidemic touched everyone, even those who were apparently strangers, and yet were all somehow connected. It's excellently cast, with Campbell Scott, Mary Louise Parker, Bruce Davison, Dermot Mulroney, Stephen Caffrey, Mark Lamos, all creating great and nuanced characters, filled with life, fear, sorrow and longing, both for the people their characters witness leaving, but also for a time when life was uncomplicated and safer. A very good film worth watching and revisiting.
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