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Make A Scene Film Club presents our Christmas Special: 1985 — because who says Christmas films have to be all cosy cottages, straight people falling in love and Mariah Carey songs? This year we're bringing you a real hidden gem: a beautiful, funny, tender and quietly heartbreaking queer Christmas film that you probably haven't seen but absolutely should.
Written and directed by Yen Tan, 1985 (2018) takes us back to Christmas in Reagan-era America, where Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) returns from New York to his conservative Texas hometown after three years away. There are presents to wrap, awkward family conversations to navigate and a secret that Adrian is struggling to share. Set during the unfolding AIDS crisis, it's a film about coming home, looking back on your life as it comes to an end and loving your family when they don't quite understand you.
Genuinely great queer Christmas films are a surprisingly rare treat but there's a recent handful that have become essential viewing...from the glamorous longing of Carol to the gloriously chaotic Christmas Eve of Tangerine. 1985 deserves a place alongside them. Shot in gorgeous, grainy black-and-white 16mm, it feels like a forgotten family photograph brought to life. 1980s Christmas isn't just a fairy light twinkling backdrop here...it all whips up a mixture of nostalgia, family expectations, old tensions and the pressure to be merry when you're feeling anything but. With wonderful performances from Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen (Sideways) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield), the film finds unexpected tenderness in the most difficult conversations. There's even a little Madonna thrown in for good measure. It is a Make A Scene screening after all!
Released in the UK by queer cinema champions Peccadillo Pictures, 1985 is a rarely screened, soulful film that deserves to be seen every Christmas and is exactly the sort of queer hidden treasure we love screening. Whilst Adrian spends his last Christmas in his family home and says goodbye to his friends and family, he finds his hometown is full of love he didn't expect to receive. So come and join us for a very special alternative Christmas screening. There will be tears and laughter and we promise something different from yet another viewing of Love Actually.