Chiklis gives the best performance of his career, and the scenes between Smith and Chung are some of the film’s strongest.

| Original Score: B+ | May 10, 2024

The black and white cinematography is stunning and the richly nuanced performances are heart-breaking.

| Dec 7, 2022

In spite of its somber source material, 1985 finds a surprisingly happy note to end on.

| Nov 16, 2022

Its performances are strikingly authentic and it does well in depicting the personal pain of an international crisis through the lens of domestic normalcy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2021

Gorgeous grainy black-and-white sheen - the feeling of sparse quiet, the unspeakable made manifest...

| Jul 2, 2021

1985 ends up hitting you in a powerful yet understated manner.

| Oct 2, 2020

A remarkable film featuring an absolutely stunning performance by lead Cory Michael Smith.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

One of those little masterpieces that... are very much worth discovering. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 21, 2020

Everything is treated with the delicacy that is required to share this painful story. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jun 11, 2020

[Cory Michael Smith's] performance supports the entire film. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 29, 2020

Yen Tan embraces the quiet, and embraces the domesticity of central-American life, celebrating what makes an American family something worth aspiring for, while equally exploring the troubles that are inherent with that life.

| Apr 4, 2020

Assuming you can go home again, the visit might not be the smoothest ride of your life. That sad concept resonates through Yen Tan's drama, set in the nightmare onset of AIDS.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2019

...marked by beautiful black and white cinematography, quietly moving performances and a sustained mood of tenderness and terrible pain.

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 15, 2019

Tan stresses the tragic dimension of the story, but also its ordinariness. It's a tale of a boy and his family that could be played out in any American town, in 1985 or today.

| May 14, 2019

A quiet, heartbreaking film that never overdoes the melodramatic trappings of its story.

| May 4, 2019

All of the acting is very good, although some American commentators have remarked on the fact no one has a Texas accent. This won't matter much to an Australian audience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 25, 2019

...humbly pairs a desire for normalcy against a larger moment in history, with consequences that bleed into the personal.

| Apr 25, 2019

What really distinguishes the film is that it gets deep inside this broken family without becoming histrionic or accusatory. Tan avoids any hint of sentimentality, concentrating on the pain instead.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 25, 2019

A fantastic little gem of a film that succeeds due to its wonderfully nuanced performances, stellar filmmaking and the honest and genuine approach of its storytelling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 23, 2019

...a film with a quiet effective power.

| Original Score: 17/20 | Mar 21, 2019