The Man I Love

Jimmy (Rami Malek) is a theater actor whose reputation precedes him: magnetic, capricious, selfish, but undeniably talented. In the care of his patient partner after a stay in the hospital due to AIDS, he begins to rehearse what he knows will be his final role in a play. With fatalistic joie de vivre, Jimmy throws himself into these last months of life, surrounded by a vibrant community of artistic friends and family that includes his worried sister (Rebecca Hall), his infatuated next-door neighbor, and his fellow actors. They each enrich Jimmy’s decline with the dramas of art, sex, and reconciliation.

Ira Sachs (Peter Hujar’s Day, Passages) presents a deeply textured and compassionate film that challenges the conventions of an AIDS story, imbuing the end of Jimmy’s life with shimmering vitality. The Man I Love is just as much a portrait of someone who aches to create in the face of death as it is an homage to the dynamic individuals who gather around him, capturing the vivid spirit of 1980s New York City.