Film Review Ira Sachs resists the attention economy, using objects and people to tell a moving story of 1980s New York amid the HIV/AIDS crisis.

November 2, 2026 — 3 min read

Film still of The Man I Love (2026), directed by Ira Sachs (all images courtesy Cinetic Media)

In a scene that might be this century’s most faithful depiction of 1980s bohemian New York, a ragtag ensemble crowds around a cluttered dining room table. A mishmash of stemware gleams below the revelers, each importuned to perform a few bars of a song. One self-consciously croons “ Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah ,” another vibratos a Jehovah’s Witness spiritual, while yet another gamely stumbles through the verses of “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” from Finian’s Rainbow (1968). As gloriously languid as it is insistently idiosyncratic, the tableau readily summons nostalgia for those who remember and those who do not alike. There are no screens; there are no smartphones.…