What do you do when your government has abandoned you? What do you do when the pharmaceutical companies meant to create cures for what’s killing you instead lollygag around? For those suffering from AIDS at the dawn of the 1990’s, this could not be tolerated. Millions of lives had already been lost to this disease that was ravaging the worldwide population and yet those in power seemed to have made little to no progress in trying to help the sick and weary. Thus, the ACT UP group was started to champion the rights of AIDS-suffering individuals across the globe. BPM (Beats Per Minute) is all about following an ACT UP group located in Paris, France comprised of an eclectic coterie of people.

These France-based activists don’t just march in the streets or create chants, no, they are going to ensure that the people who are ignoring them and their plight feel their presence. The movie opens with a faction of this group storming the stage of a presenter in a form of protest before two rogue members of this group handcuff the presenter onto an object on the stage. These folks are not subtle in their indignation, they will make their voices heard and that suits the lead character of this motion picture, 26-year-old AIDS patient Sean Dalmazo (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) just fine since that fits right in with his own politically active and boisterous spirit.

The AIDS crisis of the 1980’s and 1990’s (which is still going on today since there’s still no cure for this disease) had a massive worldwide impact that took millions of lives, but BPM (Beats Per Minute) has a much more narrow focus in its storytelling intended to highlight the real human beings who lost everything in the wake of this epedimic. Thus, the plot is hyper-focused on the plight of Sean Dalmazo, a young man who, like anyone struck by AIDS, didn’t ask for this and as his body grows weaker and weaker by the day, he knows he doesn’t have much time left and intends to use however much he’s got remaining in his life to do what he can to stand up for other victims of AIDS.

That’s perhaps the most marvelous accomplishment of BPM (Beats Per Minute), it gets across just how difficult it is to live with the dark cloud of AIDS looming over your shoulder day in and day out but that’s not the only element that defines Sean Dalmazo. He strikes up a new romantic relationship with Nathan (Arnaud Valois), he takes part in political protest, he’s not going to let AIDS force his life to come grinding to a halt. The script by Robin Campillo and Phillippe Mangeot (the former of these two individuals also directs the project) is a remarkably humanistic work that does an incredible job of creating human beings out of not just Sean but numerous other members of this French ACT UP group.

We’ve got a Mom whose son was stricken by AIDS thanks to a blood transfusion, the de facto leader of the group, Thibault (Antoine Reinartz) and a member of the group who is unable to hear thus requiring the presence of a woman to translate convesations at the groups meetings into ASL. There’s a real sense of diversity in the racial, gender, financial backgrounds and of course sexualities to be found here that further enhance the sense of realism BPM (Beats Per Minute) is striving for and adds a subtle inspirational quality to the story as the mere sight of all these different people from differing walks of life coming together to fight for justice is quite stirring even without the film ever really drawing much attention to it.

But why would it? That might upend the more muted style Robin Campillo’s directing is clearly striving for. Aside from a handful of more stylized flourishes (like rapid-fire editing during darkened dance sequences set at a local club or a figure from Sean’s past emerging in a posrt-sex discussion with Nathan), BPM (Beats Per Minutes) fully commits to a grounded approach that opts for subtelty rather than bombasticness. This allows the pivotal story element of Sean Dalmazo’s gradually declining health to really hit like a ton of bricks, you don’t even really notice until well into the third act just how much he’s changed physically over the course of one movies. This physical metamorphasis has occured before my very eyes without me even realizing it.

A not insignificant part of that accomplishment should be chalked up to the absolutely phenomenal lead performance courtesy of Nahuel Perez Biscayart, he does sublime work handling the physical transformation part of the character in a muted manner fitting for the film while also being truly endearing as a young vibrant man whose grabbing this bull of a world by the horns. Arnaud Valois is also a standout as Nathan, he’s especially good in terms of having strong chemistry with Biscayart in differing tonal scenarios. Whether they’re just engaging in chatter right after sex or talking while Sean Dalmazo is lying in a hospital bed, there’s an engrossing realism to their rapport that epitomizes the kind of engaging relatable humanity that makes BPM (Beats Per Minute) such a fantastic motion picture.