|
| Mala Noche - Criterion Collection | 
 enlarge | Director: Gus Van Sant
Actors: Tim Streeter, Ray Monge, Doug Cooeyate, Sam Downey, Nyla Mccarthy
Studio: Criterion
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.25
You Save: $12.70 (42%)
New (45) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $17.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 37047
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 78
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: IMEDCC1715D
UPC: 715515026123
EAN: 0715515026123
ASIN: B000TXNDUM
Theatrical Release Date: 1986
Release Date: October 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Item is original U.S. release, brand new, shrink wrapped, direct from the distributor.
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-9 of 9 | | « PREV | | |
 Gus Van Sant's Auspicious Debut October 10, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Mala Noche was Gus Van Sant's feature film debut and an early example of what would become known as New Queer Cinema in the 1990s. More significantly, it was the first film in an informal trilogy set in Portland, Oregon that would also include Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho - Criterion Collection. One can see, in retrospect, Mala Noche as the thematic blueprint for these two other films: a fascination with street life and the characters that inhabit it - hustlers, store clerks and street kids.
The film has a gritty look thanks to the murky black and white cinematography of John Campbell (who would work with Van Sant again on My Own Private Idaho and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) that suggests film noir (with skewed angles and everything filmed in shadows) but because it's a Gus Van Sant film there is a Beat poet vibe as the characters reside in cheap, run-down apartments, seedy liquor stores and the grungy, rainy streets of Portland.
Tim Streeter does an excellent job as Walt, the quintessential Van Sant protagonist cursed with too much self-awareness. He has street smarts and an endearing romantic streak that the actor conveys so well. Streeter has a real presence - you can't take your eyes off him - that makes him interesting to watch. Aside from a guest spot on 21 Jump Street - The Complete First Season and an appearance in a Sam Shepard play, he has done no other film or television work which is a real shame because he showed such promise with Mala Noche.
Because Mala Noche was Van Sant's first film, it has a rough-around-the-edges feel and a certain vitality and energy that was carried through his two other Portland films but seemed to disappear once he dabbled for awhile in Hollywood. Fortunately, his recent trilogy of death-obsessed films, Gerry, Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant, and Last Days sees a return to his looser, more experimental roots.
"Gus Van Sant Interview" is a typically low-key extra that features the filmmaker talking about a variety of topics, including his early filmmaking effort and how it led to making Mala Noche. The director talks at length about making the film with his own money and with a very small cast and crew.
"Walt Curtis: The Peckerneck Poet" is a 1995, hour-long documentary by animator/filmmaker Bill Plympton about Curtis. The poet describes himself as "a kind of jerk-off poet therapist," reads his work and offers observations about life in a very colourful way.
Also included is a "Storyboard Gallery" with copies of the boards that Van Sant used while filming.
Finally, there is a trailer.
Unrequited gay love on the rainy streets of Portland September 5, 2007
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
This was director Gus Van Sant's first official feature film and it remains one of my favorites. While the budget may have been low all of the directors trademarks were already on display, the non-judgemental approach to marginal lives, the gritty yet sensual visual style, the understated approach to narrative and the humor. Tim Streeter (who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Keanu Reeves) is Walt, a twenty-something slacker who works in a Portland skid row liquor store but who's real passion are the two illegal Mexican immigrant boys Johnny and Roberto "Pepper" who he strikes up an uneasy friendship with. While (to my eyes) the hunky, muscular Pepper (played by Ray Monge) is the more attractive of the two, it's scrawny little Johnny that Walt falls hardest for. When asked by a female friend how old Johnny is Walt can only smile and say "We'll, he says he's 18 but..." . In fact, Johnny doesn't look much older than 17 or so which is probably the element of the film that will pose a problem for some viewers.
The movie is based on an autobiographical chapbook by Portland poet Walt Curtis published in the 1970's and later reprinted in the 1990's along with photos and commentary by Gus Van Sant. I was surprised in reading the book that the film follows the original extremely faithfully...the main change appeared to be making the main protaganist younger and more conventionally handsome which changes the feel of the relationships somewhat.
Visually, the film is wonderful to look at...grubby and bathed in darkness. The black and white cinematography is sensitve to contrasts, between say the rainy, chilly exteriors and the dry, warm low-rent interiors or Walt's luminously white skin and the warmer toned complexions of his latino friends. In one extended, hushed sequence where Walt brings Pepper back to his apartment to stay the night the film actually reminded me a bit of David Lynch's Eraserhead with it's super low-key spot lighting and industrial sound effects. Other scenes like the back road car outing have all the looseness and airiness of early Godard. Always, the visual style has an off-hand, non-forced naturalism to it.
Stubbled, dreamy Walt is a prototypical Van Sant hero and along with Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho and Michael Pitt in Last Days, one of his gentlest creations. Other Van Sant films such as Psycho, Elephant, To Die For and Drugstore Cowboy feature more aggressive and violent characters which is perhaps partly why I find them a little less endearing.
There were other fine gay themed films from the 1980's...Maurice, Law of Desire, Dona Herlinda and Her Son but if I had to pick my favorite from that decade it'd be Mala Noche. Watching it again, it seems (like Drugstore Cowboy from 1989) very, very unlike other films from the 80's and more like a leftover from the late 70's. For me at least, this is a good thing.
Since I had lost hope that Mala Noche was every going to be released on DVD in the U.S. I splurged and bought a French import from the Amazon.fr website. Judging from that transfer, the film looks and sounds just great for it's age (and budget). The Criterion Collection disc should look at least as good as the MK2 disc.
FINALLY September 2, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I was 14 I saw 'Drugstore Cowboy' for the first time and it made me look at film and life in a different light. I fell in love with Gus Van Sant's unjudgemental view of life and his affection for fringe people and vowed to see all of his films. I recently saw a bootleg of 'Mala Noche' and think it's his masterpiece filled with the themes that would become universal in all his films; lonely fringe characters, longing, alienation, etc.
I can't wait for this disc!
art house release from 1985 too long unavailable August 7, 2007
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
Mala noche is a 'bad night.' Skid Row in Portland is full of bad nights for the central character, a clerk in a pocket packet store. Sweaty, sexy Mexican kids come to the store for booze and cigarettes. One in particular throws him over into a sea of lust and unrequited love.
Who is a 'bad knight' and who is a knight in shining armor is never really resolved. The clerk tries to teach the Mexican day laborer to drive, but maybe he just wants to get away on the road in the Dodge Dart, icon of all things PNW.
Gus Van Sant produced this in 1985, the same year he produced the music for his William S. Burroughs CD Elvis Of Letters. The 'sensual despair' that haunts nearly every Van Sant film was forged in these Portland days of the Director.
I saw this film just once at a film festival in Seattle when it first came out, and I have ached to see it again, if for no other reason than to reflect on it in light of the subsequent druggie Road pictures [Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho] and the more recent 'fictu-mentaries' [Elephant and Last Days].
Hats off to the Criterian volk for releasing this film. Not all may like it; some will find it brief and coarse, and yet those qualities are what so powerfully animates the film.
|
|
|
 Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
