1985 San Francisco is an artistic haven, where vibrant creativity roams nearly as free as the love, and it’s home to a burgeoning gay scene. Frankie (Scott Marlowe) is a modern dancer, looking for his breakthrough opportunity within a brutally demanding dance company, where he is an understudy.
Frankie’s boyish frame, pale skin, and preppie hair cut give the immediate impression that this is a coming-of-age story, which director Chris Mason Johnson reveals it to be…but not just for Frankie. For this is also the origins story for the HIV test, the first to be able to diagnose Aids, which, in the 1980s, was forcibly pushing its way through the San Francisco streets like a deadly game of Chinese Whispers.
Attempting to find career breakthrough, whilst exploring his increasingly adventurous sexual lifestyle, Frankie finds a companion to share his concerns with, in dance partner Todd (Matthew Risch). Todd’s blasé attitude towards sexual congress (having sex for money) makes him a prime candidate for the deadly virus which is circulating, whilst his nihilistic attitude towards life makes him a source of intrigue for Frankie.
With some of the most mesmerizing choreography, Test is Johnson’s salute to the world of dance, coupled with a story that is harrowing and compelling.
Marlowe delivers both on and off his quick feet, with a composed performance that is riddled with subtlety. Risch, the older man, is the perfect contract to Frankie’s naiveté, offering viewers a stoic insight into this controversial world.
Many scenes utilise the San Francisco sun which bleeds through the window blinds like a heavenly dawn, this effect superbly offsets some of the film’s darker matter, whilst installing the city as a third character to this superb drama.
Exceptionally moving and superbly executed, Test is Black Swan meets Philadelphia, with a light-footed stomp of the viewer’s heart.
