THE MAN I LOVE Special Screenings

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and screenwriter Ira Sachs.

If Ira Sachs’ two previous films, the serrated, queer love triangle PASSAGES (2023) and the dishy 1970s New York time-capsule PETER HUJAR’S DAY (AFI FEST 2025), had a love child, THE MAN I LOVE would be it. Set in a bohemian queer community in 1980s New York City, a group of friends and artists are working on a live adaptation of Michael Tremblay and André Brassard’s film ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST. In the lead role is Jimmy George, a self-proclaimed “theater artist,” played with diva affect by Rami Malek. Jimmy’s talent and charisma draw lovers, friends and family into his orbit but leaves them spinning as his larger-than-life personality diminishes before their eyes. The unspoken predator of AIDS stalks the film, perpetrating its wholesale theft of so much beauty and promise from a generation. THE MAN I LOVE is a bottling of that spirit before it was lost. Sachs’ sensitivity to the era — its fashion, décor, arts, thrills and heartaches — transports viewers to the tenement apartments and gay bars that attracted such limitless talent and nurtured their aspirations. The cast filling out Jimmy’s coterie includes Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tom Sturridge and Luther Ford. Song is the heartbeat of the film, both in soundtrack and performance. Much of the cast have their respective moments in the spotlight during a buffet of songs offered around the dinner table, but Malek takes center stage repeatedly with absolutely showstopping numbers, laying Jimmy’s soul bare, waiting for the world to take notice. 
 –Travis Weedon