Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I'm ambivalent about the cinema of Gus Van Sant. Ignoring the loony idea of reshooting "Psycho" in color, there are Van Sant films that I like and/or admire (My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Drugstore Cowboy, Finding Forrester) while being considerably less enthusiastic about some other widely acclaimed ones (Elephant, Good Will Hunting).

The Criterion Collection released a gorgeous print of Van Sant's first feature film, "Mala Noche" (bad night), based on the highly autobiographical novel of the same name by Walt Curtis, a sort of gay Portland, Oregon Bukowski who expounds at great length in a bonus feature on the disc.

The film's Walt (Tim Streeter) works in a convenience store in a very slummy section of Portland and falls in love with illegal Mexican immigrants with no jobs, no prospects, who are on the verge of homelessness. "Mala Noche" -- which extends over a duration far longer than one bad night -- focuses on Walt falling in love with Johnny (Doug Cooeyate with very deepset-which is to say unphotogenic-eyes), who is not willing even to be done for money. He goes places (well, drives around) with Walt, but only if his roommate Roberto, AKA "Pepper" (Ray Monge) is along as a chaperone.

Roberto not only refers to Walt as a "puto" (a very impolite Spanish word for a man who is sexually penetrated) but carves the word on Walt's apartment door. Roberto is more pragmatic than Johnny and nails Walt one night ("clavar" which means "to nail" is a term used for the kind of unaffectionate sex Roberto has on Walt). Roberto also urges Johnny to let Walt fellate Johnny for pay, but despite his need for money, Johnny refuses.

Somewhat surprisingly, there are no drugs (an oversight more than made up for in "Drugstore Cowboy," Van Sant's next feature film also set in seamy Portland locations), but there are guns and police and a melodramatic end for one character. This fits with the frequently noirish black-and-white cinematography (lighting and camera angles) provided by John Campbell.

The running time to the credits is only 74 minutes, though, unfortunately, it seems longer. Like many first films, the ending is not very good, there is flamboyant cutting and camera angles and there is a lot of "poetic" footage (nostalgia de la boue). In case it is not obvious from what I've written already, the characters are self-defeating.

I realize that "love at first sight" occurs in many a movie and book, and we've all heard that love is blind. Not that Doug Cooeyate's Johnny is hard on the eyes, but Walt's romantic prospects and sexual prospects with Johnny are nonexistent. Any doubts on this score should be dispelled quickly, but Walt persists though he is aware his quest is doomed to failure.

Although it might also be dismissed as "melodrama," there is what I consider a dramatic flashback about the third buddy who did not make it north (falling into the hands of brutal INS agents). This section is filmed in class (John Alton) noir style.

I'd say that Van Sant redeemed the promise of "Mala Noche" in his next films (Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho). Despite my impatience with the self-defeating characters (not just Walt, who is aware that he is a hopeless romantic whose infatuation with Johnny is going nowhere), I think that "Mala Noche" is of interest beyond curiosity about where Van Sant began and its importance in the history of independent cinema.

I find the real Walt less sympathetic. The disc includes a documentary that is almost as long as the film (64 minutes) of the urban poet shockmeister talking to the camera about his life, poetry and paintings, and haranguing often unwilling audiences as he performs his scruffy poems, "Walt Curtis: The Peckerneck Poet," directed by Curtis himself. It is a case study in why self-indulgent performers need iron-fisted editors. If I were rating it, I'm not sure I'd give this even two stars. "Out there" and "way over the top" it definitely is.).

Tim Streeter's dreamy "bean queen" is far less abrasive and far more sympathetic than the Walt Curtis of the documentary.

The DVD also includes a fairly informative interview (25 minutes) with Van Sant and a trailer that gives away far too much of what little plot there is in the movie (that is, should not be viewed before seeing the movie). The English-language subtitles of the Spanish dialogue is burned-in.

---

© 2007, Stephen O. Murray

This is another contribution to CaptainD's good movie writeoff -- "Mala Noche," that is, not "Walt Curtis: The Peckerneck Poet."



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD