'The Man I Love' Review: Rami Malek Stars in Ira Sachs' Understated AIDS Drama Set in 1980s New York
By
Ryan Lattanzio
11d ago· 7 min readenReview
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Score100TypereviewSentimentneutral
Summary
Ira Sachs directs Rami Malek in 'The Man I Love,' a melancholy and understated AIDS drama set in 1980s New York. Malek plays Jimmy George, a performance artist who has an affair with a younger neighbor as a final grasp at joy before his disease progresses. The film deliberately avoids AIDS movie clichés like Kaposi's sarcoma lesions or tearful bedside vigils, instead offering a minor-key, piercingly sad portrait that makes a scarring impression through its restraint.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIra Sachs directs Rami Malek in the melancholy, sexy, and piercingly sad 'The Man I Love,' which is elusive to think about and to hold in your hand but nonetheless makes a scarring impression because of how it shirks the cliches related to the AIDS movie genre.
Malek plays a New York performance artist named Jimmy George in the 1980s, who has an affair with the cute ginger twink who's just moved in downstairs as a sort of last grab at joie de vivre before the disease inevitably takes him down.
There are no Kaposi's sarcoma lesions on display, or tearful bedside vigils, and there's only one
Rami Malek stars as a performance artist dying of AIDS in Ira Sachs' understated, minor-key, and melancholy movie 'The Man I Love.' Review.
