'Mala Noche' is a classy movie, mostly filmed in black-and-white, about an Oregon young gay shop worker, Walt, who falls in love with a vagrant and illegal migrant, a young Mexican lad, Johnny. And how does he fall in love!
He gets run in by the scheming young man and his other illegal migrant Mexican buddies, but is blinded by his feelings for the lad. They move in with Walt, taking over his apartment. To make matters worse, they don't speak English and nor does he speak Spanish. While he chirps pleasantries to his new (one-sided) love, they make fun of him, the "puto (queer) Grinko". That while they are happily abusing his hospitality. But how would it end for our naive lover?
The acting by Tim Streeter as Walt and DougCooeyate, Ray Monge and Sam Downey as the Mexicans is excellent. The cinematography is particularly good and some of the best I have ever seen with any black-and-white film. The contrast between dark and light is stark and enhances the film's art-house qualities.
I had a look at the interview made with Van Sant (20 years after completion of the film) that accompanies the DVD, and it is quite illuminating. Van Sand made this movie, his first serious attempt at film-making, on a meagre $20,000 budget. He could not afford the much more expensive colour film, and had to settle for black-and-white. He could not afford the large numbers of expensive lights needed and had to settle with only one light for his many indoor shots. That explains the stark contrast between dark and light, with little gray in-between. Although not intentional, it, in my view, made the photography even better.
I score this impressive indie film an excellent 8/10.
He gets run in by the scheming young man and his other illegal migrant Mexican buddies, but is blinded by his feelings for the lad. They move in with Walt, taking over his apartment. To make matters worse, they don't speak English and nor does he speak Spanish. While he chirps pleasantries to his new (one-sided) love, they make fun of him, the "puto (queer) Grinko". That while they are happily abusing his hospitality. But how would it end for our naive lover?
The acting by Tim Streeter as Walt and DougCooeyate, Ray Monge and Sam Downey as the Mexicans is excellent. The cinematography is particularly good and some of the best I have ever seen with any black-and-white film. The contrast between dark and light is stark and enhances the film's art-house qualities.
I had a look at the interview made with Van Sant (20 years after completion of the film) that accompanies the DVD, and it is quite illuminating. Van Sand made this movie, his first serious attempt at film-making, on a meagre $20,000 budget. He could not afford the much more expensive colour film, and had to settle for black-and-white. He could not afford the large numbers of expensive lights needed and had to settle with only one light for his many indoor shots. That explains the stark contrast between dark and light, with little gray in-between. Although not intentional, it, in my view, made the photography even better.
I score this impressive indie film an excellent 8/10.