''I Am Michael'' is a 2015 American biographical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by Justin Kelly. Based on the journalist

Benoit Denizet-Lewis Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a writer with ''The New York Times Magazine'', a ''New York Times'' best-selling author, and a tenured professor of writing, literature and publishing at Emerson College. Background A citizen of both France and the Unite ...

' '' New York Times Magazine'' article "My Ex-Gay Friend", the film stars James Franco, Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts, and

Charlie Carver Charles Carver Martensen (born July 31, 1988) is an American actor and screenwriter. His best known roles include Porter Scavo on the ABC television series ''Desperate Housewives'', Ethan on the MTV television series ''Teen Wolf'', Scott Frost ...

. Franco plays Michael Glatze, a gay activist who renounces

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

and becomes a Christian pastor. Filming ran in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from August 11 to August 30, 2014. The film was released in a limited release and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on January 27, 2017, by Brainstorm Media.

Premise

Based on a true story, the film depicts gay activist Michael Glatze, who rejects homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor.

Cast

* James Franco as Michael Glatze * Zachary Quinto as Bennett * Emma Roberts as Rebekah *

as Tyler * Avan Jogia as Nico Gladstone *

Devon Graye Devon Graye Fleming is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for portraying teenage Dexter in the TV series ''Dexter'', as well as the second Trickster in ''The Flash''. In 2019, he wrote the horror film '' I See You''. Personal l ...

as Cory *

Leven Rambin Leven Rambin is an American actress. She is known for playing look-alike half-sisters Lily Montgomery and Ava Benton on ''All My Children'', and for her recurring roles on '' Grey's Anatomy'' and '' Gone'', as well as '' Terminator: The Sarah Co ...

as Catherine * Daryl Hannah as Deborah * Lesley Ann Warren as Susan * Blake Lee as Benoit * Kevin Cahoon as Peter

Production

On April 1, 2014, James Franco was added to the film to play Michael Glatze, a gay activist who later renounced homosexuality. Justin Kelly was set to direct the film ''Michael'' based on

' '' New York Times Magazine'' article "My Ex-Gay Friend", while

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultu ...

would executive produce the film. On July 14, Zachary Quinto, Emma Roberts, and Chris Zylka joined the cast of the film. Quinto would play Bennett, the former boyfriend of Franco's character, Roberts would play his girlfriend, and Zylka would play another past love interest. Director Justin Kelly said that "this isn't just a story about an 'ex-gay', it's actually a very relatable story about the power of belief and the desire to belong". On August 14,

joined the film to play Tyler, who gets involved in a relationship with Michael and Bennett and is heartbroken when Michael rejects homosexuality. On August 15, Avan Jogia joined the film as Nico, a young man whom Michael meets and falls for along his journey. On August 18, Lesley Ann Warren joined the film's cast to play Quinto's character's mother. On August 25, Daryl Hannah joined the film to play Deborah, who runs a Colorado Buddhist retreat where Michael goes to find solace.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as ...

began on August 11, 2014, in

as actor Franco shared images from the set. On August 20, Franco was spotted during filming on Ocean Avenue in

East Rockaway East Rockaway is a village in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,818 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of East Rockaway is at the edge of Rockaway Peninsula Proper in th ...

. The production wrapped on August 31, 2014 in

Baldwin, New York Baldwin is a town in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 818 at the 2020 census. The town name is derived from Thomas and Waterman Baldwin, two of the earliest settlers of the area. The town is east of Elmira. It is par ...

. Also present in film is Musician/Artist Soda, seen as a dancer in a few scenes. He also supplied artwork for the set. This is notable to mention as he is an alumnus of East Rockaway High School under his birth name.

Release

The film was released at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and also screened in the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. It received its California premiere during the 17th FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival. The film was the opening night film of the Frameline Film Festival on June 18, 2015 at the Castro Theatre in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. Brainstorm Media acquired distribution rights to the film, and set the film for a limited release and through

on January 27, 2017.

Reception

The film drew mostly mixed reviews. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''I Am Michael'' takes a determinedly balanced approach to its complex subject, and although the results don't always add up, they're anchored by strong work from James Franco." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average". Peter Debruge of '' Variety'' wrote, "An unusually nuanced James Franco carries this complex portrait of a man who came out and fought to encourage other

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

youth before converting to conservative Christianity," but concluded that the film was too dry and kept the title character too distant and veiled in its attempt to be impartial. Boyd van Hoeij wrote in ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'', "Thankfully, the screenplay doesn't portray the story in simple terms of good or evil, but that doesn't mean that there's quite enough nuance or insight to constantly elevate the material above the level of a well-made-but-TV-ready biopic." ''

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

s Eric Kohn gave the film a B+ grade.

References

External links

* * {{Justin Kelly 2015 films 2015 biographical drama films 2015 directorial debut films 2015 LGBT-related films 2000s in LGBT history American biographical drama films American LGBT-related films Ex-gay movement Films about LGBT and Christianity Films based on newspaper and magazine articles Films set in the 2000s Films shot in New York City Gay-related films LGBT-related drama films LGBT-related films based on actual events 2010s English-language films 2010s American films LGBT-related biographical films