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Longtime Companion

Play trailer Poster for Longtime Companion R 1990 1h 36m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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92% Tomatometer 24 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
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.
Longtime Companion

What to Know

Critics Consensus

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

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Critics Reviews

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Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 01/01/2000
3.5/4
Longtime Companion is about friendship and loyalty about finding the courage to be helpful and the humility to be helped. Go to Full Review Terry Lawson Dayton Daily News Jul 17
3/4
It is a moving piece, especially in its last half. Go to Full Review Terry Francis Southern Voice (Atlanta) 05/09/2023
3/4
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. Go to Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 11/16/2022
This film is heartbreaking, but replete with courage and macabre fun. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Michael Bronski Gay Community News (Boston) 09/19/2022
Longtime Companion is shocking and moving in its forthright attempt to make us look at the lives that AIDS touches. Go to Full Review Chase Burns The Stranger (Seattle, WA) 12/09/2021
It was the first major film to deal with the AIDS epidemic and remains a forceful and passionate look at a group of friends supporting each other as they battle the virus. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Robert V Mar 14 Masterpiece! My God it captures the whole nightmare of AIDS in the 80's and 90's and is also so full of love. See more PridePosterStudios 09/20/2023 Sweet, but there are stronger films about AIDS. See more steve d 07/11/2020 Important and hard hitting film with a fantastic performance from Bruce Davison See more 03/30/2019 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. See more 02/01/2019 The best romance movie ever made! See more 09/03/2017 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. See more Read all reviews
Longtime Companion

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Cast & Crew

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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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Longtime Companion

Longtime Companion (1990) View more photos

Movie Info

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
Producer
Stan Wlodkowski
Screenwriter
Craig Lucas
Distributor
Samuel Goldwyn Company
Production Co
American Playhouse
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
Runtime
1h 36m