Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

robfwalter This movie is not perfect, but its flaws are outshone by its facets. The most sparkling among those is Arnaud Valois, who is smoking hot as Nathan, one of the ACT UP campaigners who this film follows. Good acting, a warm heart and a realism that is hard to find in big idea movies are also highlights of this film. Yes, an awful lot of it takes place in meetings in a lecture theatre, but these scenes actually had my heart racing, so true were they to the reality of activist politics - trying to decide if you should speak up or let a point pass, understanding both sides of an argument but knowing that the purpose of a meeting is to make a choice, hating someone's ideology but trying to maintain a working relationship with them. In this way, the movie finds its relevance to today. If politics is to be taken back from careerists and corporations to instead deal with real problems such as climate change and growing income and wealth inequality, it will require everyday people to take their cue from 120 Battements Par Minute and turn up to meetings, argue points of order and collectively decide how to act.The two main shortcomings of the film are its earnestness and its length. Even just cutting fifteen minutes from it could have made the film easier to take, and there is probably half an hour that could have gone. In some ways it's stuck trying to tell a Hollywood story at a European pace, and as a consequence it does drag at times.I was prepared for the earnestness, as I had seen the previews, but there are still a few times when it felt more like instruction than entertainment. However, there are also moments of levity and it's worth giving up an extra half hour of your time to see a film that is as profound, important and relevant as this one.

proud_luddite N Paris in the 1990s, a group of AIDS activists (the Paris chapter of ACT UP) plans regular meetings to set up demonstrations and protests - mainly against drug companies. Two members of the group become involved in a romance: Sean (Nahual Perez Biscayart), a long-time activist who is HIV-positive; and Nathan (Arnaud Valois), an activist newcomer who is HIV-negative."BPM" lacks a full historical context as to why ACT UP is so angry against the drug companies among other institutions and individuals. While the urgency is understandable for those living with AIDS, there is no perspective given to drug companies on why they and their representatives are so despised. They (of the drug companies) are given too little exposure for the viewer to understand their perspective. Perhaps a scenario of annoying bureaucracy would have been helpful. During that tragic time period, there was a lot of indifference, denial, and prejudice about AIDS. This is not reflected well enough in the film. Instead, the drug company reps look innocent while some of the ACT UP activists come off as violent and harsh. This should not have been the case.But the movie truly shines in the relationship between Sean and Nathan. Both actors do a great job especially Perez Biscayart who shows a strong range as Sean's physical condition gradually deteriorates. The film also excels in a particularly moving death scene. It is very realistic as those grieving share a collective silence and awkwardness among each other. This scene easily reminds viewers of the various losses in our own pasts. Despite the film's flaws, its assets make it a touching experience.

thirtyfivestories A story with a particular historical moment in mind has been rendered timeless. A random first generation Gameboy generates a temporal whiplash, as the film's events are portrayed as contemporary catastrophes. Silence equates to death, and the team meeting in a college lecture hall has dwindling numbers, yet deafening shouts.A prejudicial plague scorches France, bringing an already tight-knit community into a blood brotherhood. ACT UP is a guerrilla group full of eventual corpses. The HIV epidemic has threatened their love and survival. Pharmaceutical companies have cubical indifference as antidotes are sluggishly distributed by financial logistics. As the non-violent vigilantes face just as many internal conflicts as press-generated woes, their operations grow in scale and creativity. Their weekly conferences have an intentional cadence complete with respectful snaps, hisses, and hand signals designed to facilitate the mutual understanding that has gone extinct beyond the university walls.Sean is one of he founding members, and has some of the worst test results. He is the loudest in any given demonstration, and celebrates harder than all his peers. ACT UP is Sean's final lifeline, and his involvement resounds as a funeral dirge among a thunderous parade.Campillo has delivered another dialogue driven barrage of human desperation. The sprinkling of establishing shots offer a reprieve from the claustrophobic disputes between the positives and the businessmen impartial to death. An important angle to an understated tragedy that shaped legislation in the most vital ways.

Trevor TThis is one of the best films of the year. 120 Beats Per Minute dramatises a dramatic few (early) years of ACT UP Paris, a direct action AIDS advocacy group. The film opens by initially presenting many different participants in meetings and demonstrations to give an understanding of the diversity of the people affected by AIDS and the group itself. It then hones in on two main protagonists – Sean and Nathan. Sean is HIV positive yet starting to develop AIDS. His fiercely political and personal fight against AIDS, ignorance, fear and the lack of interest from Government, pharmaceutical companies and the general public to their personal plight is heightened by the growing number of deaths decimating the gay community around him and the little time he may have to live. Nathan is a new member to ACT UP, HIV negative, yet quickly learning about HIV, AIDS, drug interactions, scientific analysis, and the political and social landscape of AIDS. He eventually falls in love with Sean, and will eventually have to take care of him much earlier than expected. Both men are in their early 20's when we meet them and this is probably the most heartbreaking and devastating aspect of the film and its story- that this disease claimed so many young lives within a society that for the most part did not care about their plight and stigmatised them because they were gay, had AIDS, and / or did not like their sexual practices. The film follows ACT UP meetings, protest rallys and demonstrations (which are both shocking and humorously presented); alongside Sean and Nathan's growing relationship. One scene in particular I will never forget - when they gate crash a class at a high school to inform the students about safe sex, as nobody was informing them because of the sexual nature, and the camera keeps on returning to one young student mesmerised by the groups actions; showing how they did have an impact through their presence. All the performances are beautifully rendered, and while the running time may seem long it is understandable when seen in context with the emotionally powerful last quarter of the film. This film was an experience that haunted me for days afterward. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.