This documentary accomplishes what most films sent out to do; move and transform audience members. What we have here is a remarkable movie which managed to change the way people viewed the AIDS crisis.

The success of the film's impact lies in its structural simplicity; we hear from the survivors of AIDS victims in ways which humanize their suffering.

Much has been written about the haunting musical score.

I had one slight problem with the film; its Amnerican-centric message. I wish the filmmakers would have paid more attention to the subject matter by giving us more of a world-view. This would have increased the film's credibility.

However, this is a quibble. What we have here is a motion picture which gives lasting testament to the personal courage exhibited by both victims and survivors.

Somber, affecting documentary that elicits sadness and anger in equal measure. The former, of course, is for the subjects of this film, all taken in their thirties or younger in a most painful and hideous fashion, as well as the story tellers who are left to get on with their lives and fight the emptiness as best they can. Fury is reserved for the federal government, under one of our worst presidents, perversely made better by the complete odiousness of Trump, who did the bare minimum for eight years and did not come up with an even halfway effective drug until fear of the scourge spreading to the heterosexual population spurred it to semi action.

I have two criticisms. One is that this film is not long enough. A subject as big as the AIDS crisis needs more extensive treatment than an hour and twenty minutes, especially the shamefully inadequate government response. My other knock is that the ghostly, choral music score at times verges on misery porn. Give it a B.

Every life has a story. Here are a few of the stories of people who died from AIDS, told by their survivors.

More than three quarter of a million Americans have died from AIDS since we began to notice it, about forty years ago. Worldwide, the figure seems to be a bit more than 40 million. Do a little math, and we as a nation look lucky. Human lives are not measured statistically, and people do not die by nations, but individually. Try to speak of the enormity of something, saying eighty million people have died from AIDS, or 6.9 million from COVID-19 or what have you and the horror and sadness gets lost in the the crowd. But one by one, with those they leave behind to assess the values of those lives. "My son died"; "My lover died"; "My friend Jim died": these are the words that make me weep. That's why this movie is so effective.