Longtime Companion

In the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York read a short item in the paper: a strange cancer appearing in gay men. Nobody takes it seriously. Over the following years the item becomes a rumour, then an illness, then funerals. The film follows the same group from 1981 to 1989, and each section opens with a date. Norman René's film is cited as the first wide-release American feature about AIDS. The telling is built less on the disease than on survivors not knowing what to do: who to tell, how to care, what to say at the funeral. The title comes from that uncertainty; it was the phrase newspaper obituaries of the period used for gay partners. Bruce Davison, as David, caring for his friend, was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and won a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award. Campbell Scott and Mary-Louise Parker are in the cast. Who it's for: Anyone interested in the history of the AIDS crisis, queer cinema, and drama built on friendship. Who it's not for: The deaths come one after another and the film is emotionally exhausting. It also barely steps outside a white middle-class male circle.