Film critic
Janet Maslin observed that at the beginning of the film "a man tells the camera he has tested HIV positive for the AIDS virus; he talks briefly and angrily about his feelings, then suddenly lowers his pants and seems to shoot himself anally with a pistol at very close camera range." She goes on to note that this is only a simulated act of suicide, although "it is deadly all the same, insofar as it defines and limits von Praunheim's approach to reaching his audience." Kevin Thomas wrote in the
Los Angeles Times that the film makes a compelling case for all closeted gays "to come out and join the struggle to press for a cure for the disease and for more education in regard to its prevention, especially at a time when
gay bashing is on the rise and when the
far-right and various religious groups seem determined to view AIDS as a fit punishment for homosexuals." Stuart Galbraith wrote in
The Ann Arbor News that while there are several recognizable LGBTQ artists in the film, "much of the film's characters are made up of fringe-types, whose artwork is all well and good, but who tend to detract away from the subject of the film rather than complement it." In his review for the
Los Angeles Daily News, Bob Strauss wrote that if you can get past the simulated suicide at the start of the film, then "nothing that comes after it should throw you, still, it sets the tone for a movie that has no intention of being polite." Film critic Craig Seligman stated that the artists featured in the film "have a lot of anger to express, and wanting to sneak away from it may not make you a raving reactionary; it may have something to do with the failures of their art, or with the director's botched attempts to capture it." ==Awards==