Longtime Companion

R

Released May 11, 1990

1 hr. 36 min.

Drama

List

91%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

83%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

During the 1980s, a group of gay men and their straight female friend confront the spread of AIDS. Personal trainer Willy (Campbell Scott) watches the epidemic grow, advocating for awareness. Willy's friend John (Dermot Mulroney) is the first to be infected, but soon it becomes clear that a pandemic is underway in the gay community. Willy, boyfriend Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey) and his adopted sister, Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker), look on as their friends and loved ones succumb to the disease.

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Critics Consensus

Longtime Companion is a sensitive ensemble AIDS drama, lensed with sympathy which builds to a moving finale.

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PridePosterStudios

Sweet, but there are stronger films about AIDS.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/26/24

Full Review

andrea m

A nice moving picture about the AIDS outbreak. Even though it's a bit all over the place (it took me time to tell who's who and people die without being told) it manages to make you feel the paranoia of the new disease spreading, and it's also heartbreaking in Bruce Davison's performance, a longtime companion truly believable and memorable. The soundtrack is another high note, quite iconic from the very beginning.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

steve d

Important and hard hitting film with a fantastic performance from Bruce Davison

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Eschewing the trappings of the daytime soaps the characters follow, this one of the earliest depiction of the the AIDS crisis is a beautiful moving story of friends mourning their immediate loss to the epidemic and blessing the strength they muster after each death.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The best romance movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Longtime Companion is a timely cinematic achievement that sheds light on the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and the scores of gay men affected by it. Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, and Dermot Mulroney give tender and endearing performances as three friends who traverse the new world filled with paranoia and guilt about the outcomes that surround them. The film is heavily whitewashed; which could lead one to believe that the AIDS crisis only impacted well-to-do white men, but with an ensemble as talented as this it manages to pull more emphatic viewing of a group of people who are often relegated to the backseat in storylines.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

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Norman René

Director

Bruce Davison

David

Campbell Scott

Willy

Stephen Caffrey

Fuzzy

Mark Lamos

Sean

Patrick Cassidy

Howard

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B+

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Rated: 4/5

Oct 3, 2002

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Longtime Companion is about friendship and loyalty about finding the courage to be helpful and the humility to be helped.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Terry Francis

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

It's an ambitious approach... but Rene and Lucas gamble that by dramatizing the effects of AIDS on singular characters rather than generic representations, they will humanize the disease in a way that statistics cannot. Their gamble pays off.

Rated: 3/4

May 9, 2023

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

This film is heartbreaking, but replete with courage and macabre fun. [Full review in Spanish]

Nov 16, 2022

Full Review

Michael Bronski

Gay Community News (Boston)

Longtime Companion is shocking and moving in its forthright attempt to make us look at the lives that AIDS touches.

Sep 19, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

During the 1980s, a group of gay men and their straight female friend confront the spread of AIDS. Personal trainer Willy (Campbell Scott) watches the epidemic grow, advocating for awareness. Willy's friend John (Dermot Mulroney) is the first to be infected, but soon it becomes clear that a pandemic is underway in the gay community. Willy, boyfriend Fuzzy (Stephen Caffrey) and his adopted sister, Lisa (Mary-Louise Parker), look on as their friends and loved ones succumb to the disease.

Director: Norman René
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 11, 1990, Original
Release Date (DVD): Jan 23, 2001
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.6M