Ancestors review - messy but moving ghostly drama about the Aids crisis
The Guardian • • entertainment
Key Points:
- David Turpin’s debut film Ancestors explores the impact of the 1980s AIDS crisis on gay men, focusing on themes of mortality, legacy, and intergenerational connection within the LGBTQ+ community.
- Set in 1988 London, the film follows Beau (Éanna Hardwicke), a gay man who takes in Tiny, a HIV-positive young man, highlighting a rare depiction of non-sexualized friendship between gay men.
- The film blends reality, dreams, and timelines with a ghostly atmosphere, achieving emotional depth in grounded dialogue scenes, though it sometimes suffers from uneven pacing and overly ambitious storytelling.
- Ancestors features strong performances, especially from Hardwicke, but also includes some distracting elements such as underdeveloped subplots and inconsistent visuals.
- While the film’s conclusion feels conventional and less impactful than earlier moments, its haunting portrayal of love, fear, and hope amid the AIDS crisis resonates powerfully in its best scenes.
