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The best romance movie ever made!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Gus van Sant's promising debut feature is an interesting story on obsessive desire. Black-and-white was the right choice for this low-budget romantic drama. The film revolves around undefined relationships, unbalanced by money, race, sexuality, age and language.
Though the acting (other than the lead) and editing is little amateur, and the narration certainly takes away a little from the storytelling, overall, it's quite an amazing debut and properly conveys what it intended to. Few scenes are shot really well.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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Review In A Nutshell:
There will be filmmakers that one would easily find a connection with and some would be difficult to appreciate; not completely understanding their sense of style and the thematic or emotional intentions they bring to their film. Gus Van Sant falls on the latter, with the films I have seen from him, so far, have caused me emotional alienation towards the characters he follows. It might be because he captures these characters with a story that does not rely on a basic three act arc and aiming for something more raw and honest.
Mala Noche is another film from the director that deals with homosexuality, but like My Own Private Idaho, the film does not judge the characters for their sexual preferences, instead they are treated like any other person; focusing more on how their personal journey affects them at an emotional and intimate level rather than viewing them from a spectator's perspective. I never found myself bored of its Walt's journey, the protagonist; a story of obsession and love towards an individual who doesn't share the same feelings, but the film also does not put me in a state of thought or emotional movement that I would have hoped from such a personal story.
The film displays characters that are not so perfect and easy to empathise with at times; our protagonist has flaws of his own, being firmly insistent in his desires, relentless of letting them go despite the other person already rejecting him, there is an obsession of fulfilling a sort of sexual fantasy that is tailored to his own psychological and emotional construct that it does create a feeling intimidation of those in the receiving end of it. Johnny, the young man that Walt was insisting in having sexual relations with, is also not a perfect person under Van Sant's eyes, with the character's flaws of opportunism being apparent in every scene; maintaining a relationship with Walt, drawing a line on what may be too far, but unwilling to drive himself completely away from him when constant sexual propositions are being raised as that would destroy an opportunity for security and shelter.
The film's photography is dark and simplistic, possibly due to budgetary reasons; but Van Sant does not let this be a huge crutch for the film, finding clever ways of making the film feel stylish and at times emotionally effective even with its restrictions. The film's image is constantly filled with shadows, covering much of its environment, which Van Sant allows our attentions to remain on its characters. It is a strong move by the director and its director of photography, as it did make the film feel more personal and intimate; capturing characters in a light that speaks more of themselves internally than what they represent externally.
Gus Van Sant is not an easy filmmaker to appreciate as he possesses a sense of style that requires repeated viewings and constant thought to find understanding and awareness in the subtleties of his work. Despite my not so high praises for his films, I am still willing to explore and watch more of his filmography; who knows, maybe his more well-known films like Elephant and Good Will Hunting might win me over.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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This film's title makes me think of melanoma, which would indeed make for a pretty "bad night". ...I'd like to joke that no one gets the pun there, but I feel that too many people understand Spanish too well to not figure out that this film's title translates as "Bad Night". Sorry, but Spanish isn't too attractive of a language to me, but then again, this film is about a lot of unconventional attractions, which makes it the perfect debut for Gus Van Sant. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a prelude to a career dealing with gay people problems, set around a time when they were more relevant, what with AIDS issues and what have you. Come to think of it, this film missed out on a great opportunity to deal with very relevant AIDS issues, but instead, it chose to not really deal with much at all. Okay, maybe this film isn't that do-nothing, but if Van Sant keeps making these gay-themed films in an attempt to draw as much attention to issues he stands firm by as they do towards stuff like "Good Will Hunting" or something, maybe he should make dramas that more people would like to see. I like the film just fine ultimately, but it can get carried away with its artistic license, among other things, that is, not including exposition.
Quickly moving you along its story and ultimately taking on a runtime of not even 80 minutes, this film is mighty thin with its expository depths, saying a fair bit about the characters it focuses on intimately, but not enough for you to get as invested as you probably should in more than a few, maybe most characters. Well, perhaps you shouldn't get too invested, because as thin as developmental value is, the story concept itself is about as thin, with conflict and scale so relatively light that one can kind of understand the 78-minute runtime, despite cut-backs on development. Still, as short as the film is, it takes some time to drag, with filler, something that you'd accurately figure the final product wouldn't have too much time for. Needless to say, it's not too long before filler overtakes the focus of the film and thins it into dissipation, resulting in bland narrative cold spells, made all the more blanding by atmospheric dry spells within a thoughtful directorial performance by Gus Van Sant whose questionable aspects don't tap out with the sense of momentum. I joked about it earlier, and sure enough, about as misguided as anything in this film is Van Sant's storytelling style, partly because it's uneven, underusing narrations that may be intentionally mixed in a way which makes it difficult to distinguish from dialogue, and breaking up relatively traditional storytelling with some abstractionism that is questionable enough by its own right, anchored by frantic visuals and other odd artistic expressions that are neither as gutsy as they want to be, nor as subdued as they should be. The film is ambitious in a lot of the wrong ways, and Van Sant was too fresh to the scene at this point to meet his own expectations, let alone the expectations of those hoping for a more tight, focused and stylistically grounded interpretation of subject matter that was always to be kind of forgettable. With that said, while it occupies a small window of your time, it doesn't squander it, being a generally fair debut for Van Sant, particularly as an orchestrator of, if nothing else, visual style.
Its cameras' possible shortcomings to technical quality being at least very nearly obscured by a near-intensely deep black-and-white palette that's heavy on shadows, the film's visual style, powered by John Campbell's fine cinematographic eye, is unique, with a rugged, almost noirish grit that Gus Van Sant makes all the more nifty through stylishly dynamic angles that consistently impress aesthetically and, at times, immerse you into the environment of the film. This film is pretty heavily reliant on its style, particularly visual style, and the sheer quality of such style goes a long way in not simply saving the final product as decent, but in bonding you with the artistic heart of this drama, as surely as the performers bond you with the drama's substantial heart. The characters are so unevenly developed that the film stands a chance of falling flat as a should-be intimate character study, ultimately carried by performances - particularly that by leading man Tim Streeter - that, while nothing more than charismatic, charm, often greatly, further endearing you to a film of very limited substance. Of course, it's not as though the narrative is cleansed of intrigue, being dramatically lacking, but kind of unique as a portrait on the life of a love-struck gay man in the humble city of Portland, Oregon, with a certain color that Van Sant, as screenwriter, captures with some lively set pieces and clever dialogue and humor. Missteps in storytelling are considerable, but the strength nonetheless stand, with wit, charm and style that, in order to save the flimsy final product, but be well-arranged. An adequate arrangement is just what you get from Van Sant, as a director whose lack of experience and considerable deal of artistic ambition are problematic, yet met with enough inspiration to style and subtle pacing to craft enough fair entertainment value to endear through and through. Maybe the film could have been more, but it also could have been a lot less, and when it's all said and done, no matter how misguided, Van Sant's efforts engage enough to make a perfectly entertaining, if underwhelming art drama.
At the end of the night, limited development to a story that is already of limited consequence, combined with unfocused, dry and stylistically uneven attributes to storytelling threaten decency, secured by the outstanding visual style, charming performances, clever writing and reasonably well-paced direction that make "Mala Noche" a fairly entertaining and endearing debut for Gus Van Sant, despite its rusty touches.
2.5/5 - Fair
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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Even at the start of his career, Van Sant has always been an artist who has savored the bittersweet pleasure of sadness and pain.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
No creo estar intelectualmente preparado para este tipo de cine tan experimental, conceptual, o como lo quieran calificar.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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