Synopsis
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
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Cast
- Jim ParsonsMichael
- Zachary QuintoHarold
- Matt BomerDonald
- Andrew RannellsLarry
- Michael Benjamin WashingtonBernard
- Robin de JesúsEmory
- Tuc WatkinsHank
- Charlie CarverCowboy Tex
- Brian HutchisonAlan
- Brian DoleYoung Bohemian
Recommendations
- 91
IndieWire
The result is a sophisticated, tart-tongued revival, and a gayed-up “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” that surmounts the challenges faced by stage-to-screen adaptations, specifically the utter confinement to a single space. - 83
The Playlist
To run the fool’s errand of divorcing the film from a political context and examine it merely qualitatively, Joe Mantello’s starry-eyed stab at the material is thrilling, an exciting cobbling together of consummate performers delivering acid dipped quips and making the Greenwich Village apartment the film is set in a both dramatically and cinematically elastic playground. - 80
The Guardian
It is all unexpectedly potent, particularly in the absurdity and petulance and pain that Parsons crams into his performance. It’s a strange, compelling dose of unhappiness. - 80
Empire
Strongly acted and effectively staged, The Boys In The Band has lost little of its impact in the five decades since its first debut, and is a fitting tribute to its creator Mart Crowley, who died in March. - 75
The A.V. Club
Mantello is the first to tell people he hasn’t had a lot of experience directing movies (his last feature was the 1997 adaptation of his Broadway hit Love! Valour! Compassion!), yet his version of Boys fights its stage roots far more than Friedkin’s film. - 75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Despite all these challenges, the performances that Mantello wrings make the 2020 effort worth everyone’s trouble. - 70
Variety
What holds the movie together, apart from Quinto’s dreamy geek mystique and delectable delivery of every line, is the tormented passion that Jim Parsons brings to it. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The Boys in the Band in many ways is dated and formulaic. But it's also very much alive, an invaluable record of the destructive force of societal rejection, even in a bastion of liberal acceptance like New York City. Despite its flaws, this consistently engaging film provides a vital window for young queer audiences into the difficult lives of their forebears.
