BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo). 137 minutes. Subtitled. See listing. Rating: NNN
BPM is an intense docudrama that dives deep into Paris ACT UP’s battle against the AIDS plague in the early 1990s.
Director Robin Campillo’s hyperventilated approach lays out what victims and their loved ones had to deal with at a terrifying time. But much of the action is by the book even a mother’s concern for her suffering son barely resonates.
What saves the film is the love story between two ACT UP members whose care and devotion to each other provide an emotional touchstone the rest lacks.
