Keep the Lights On

Name: Keep the Lights On
Genre: Drama
Released: September 7, 2012
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 79
Cast: Julianne Nicholson, Souleymane Sy Savane, Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth

2012

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 22 Ratings

See All

8.1

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8.1	Your Score
8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 22 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Keep The Lights On

Now Playing: Keep The Lights On

Movie Details & Credits

Music Box Films | Release Date: September 7, 2012 | Not Rated

Starring: Julianne Nicholson, Souleymane Sy Savane, Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth

Summary: Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik and closeted lawyer Paul meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive,Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik and closeted lawyer Paul meet through a casual encounter, but soon find a deeper connection and become a couple. Individually and together, they are risk takers—compulsive, and fueled by drugs and sex. In an almost decade-long relationship defined by highs, lows, and dysfunctional patterns, Erik struggles to negotiate his own boundaries and dignity while being true to himself. Director Ira Sachs’s fearlessly personal screenplay is anchored by Lindhardt, who embodies Erik’s isolation and vulnerability with a gentle presence. Harrowing and romantic, visceral and layered, Keep the Lights On is a film that looks at love and all of its manifestations, taking it to dark depths and bringing it back to a place of grace. (Music Box Films)… Expand

Director: Ira Sachs

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 101 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Owen Gleiberman

Sep 6, 2012

Lindhardt, sweet and childish and achingly vulnerable, gives a stunning performance. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Sep 4, 2012

Not only does this film gloriously fulfill the potential that Ira Sachs has tantalized movie-lovers with for years, it also help explains what took him so long. Out of lost love comes a terrific work of art; it's the oldest story in the world, but it always feels new when it's done right. Read full review

Gary Goldstein

Sep 8, 2012

A haunting, immersive portrait of a romance between two men, one that's marked - and marred - by both drug dependency and emotional codependency. Not unlike last year's gay-themed drama, "Weekend," it proves an important and mature piece of business. Read full review

David Edelstein

Sep 4, 2012

Sachs hits notes we've rarely heard in gay cinema, in which the hedonist bleeds into the humanist, the ephemeral into the enduring. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Sep 7, 2012

A tough, well-acted little indie. Read full review

Justin Chang

Sep 4, 2012

Delicately tracing the troubled nine-year bond between two men living in New York, Ira Sachs mines his own memories to sensitive, melancholy if somewhat muted effect in Keep the Lights On. Read full review

David Denby

Sep 4, 2012

The two characters are ciphers, and the script, which Sachs co-wrote with Mauricio Zacharias, is by turns underwritten or banal. Read full review

SEE ALL 26 REVIEWS

Write a Review

Negative:

User Reviews

beingryanjude

Sep 4, 2014

An often painful and brutally honest look at love and romance. This film proves that gender makes absolutely no difference... love is love--no matter how tough love is. A fine debut from Thure Lindhardt as Erik.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

GreatMartin

Oct 22, 2012

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

MartinNYID

Nov 10, 2012

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I don't understand why it's 'hip' to remake material we've all seen before with a 'gay' label. If someone has never had experience with addiction, this film might do something. But it skirts its responsibility to delve deeper into the treacherous aspects of bottoming out and recovery - we go from 'just using' to a full-on intervention full of characters we've never met. And then suddenly, "shazam!" they're procaiming their love for each other again.

I found the lead actor distracting - nothing against a foreign accent, but this brought nothing to the film except some unwanted comic parody. I didn't find either believable, and feel that this is another 'make a gay movie' from an angle that once all gays see the light and adopt the broken, pathetic marriage and relationship system of straights, the world will then be all good, golden and complete.

Addiction is a serious disease, and far more rampant in the gay demographic than anywhere else. This film doesn't do much to shed new light, despite the title.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 3 REVIEWS