Before Night Falls (2000)

From my favorite movies..

Absolutely the worst movie.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Watching this movie is like slow death ! I mean it ! The story goes on very slowly and it shows nothing special. The story is about a gay Cuban novelist who is being arrested by the regime of Castro. Yes I get it and totally agree that such like can be tough and a person who lives that life can be a hero, yeah yeah yeah , I get it OK ? But not all real stories or lives are suitable for the silver screen. I'm a broadcasting and film making student so I know exactly what should be look at when one start writing a script or even more basic a storyline! The first thing and the basic thing that the writer should ask himself is that , would the audience watch this ? Would this movie be important for the audience to watch ? This is in fact the first question that audience would ask themselves before or after watching the movie , " What is there for me or What was there for me " ? Honestly , this movie has nothing to offer the audience. The story is painfully slow and boring. Very few interesting things happen , there's no climax in the story and even worse the audience are not given enough details about the character to sympathize with them or even connect with them.Overall , a terrible movie , I give it 1 out of 10. you think I'm being nasty ? well , here's a fact , this movie made only 4 million dollars at the box office , which we all know in Hollywood is a big JOKE! I'm not nasty now , am I ? Make good movies , you get good reviews !

This is one of those films I like to call "pseudo intellectual".I disagree with Berardinelli here, and almost totally agree with Berge Garabedian's review. On one thing however I do disagree also with Garabedian: in my opinion the Direction was far from good. On the contrary, I believe the Direction to be one of the major shortfalls of this motion picture. And honestly, considering Schnabel is a painter, the cinematography, the visuals should have been much better as well.Having said that, now on to the main 'problem' with this film. As far as I can see, the material (the story) the director and producers had to work with here was first class (as were the actors). What they managed to do with it however is only to produce two hours of first class boredom. In more capable hands (maybe a good film maker instead of a painter, who would do better to stick to what he is allegedly good at...) this could (and should) have been a monumental motion picture, an epic to remember. Instead, what we got was an abstract canvas with randomly painted splashes of color that nobody (including those who praise the film, believe me) can understand. Oh well, if it so difficult to understand, it must be great doesn't it...?Art? Not in a thousand years! Skip this one if you can, it's a waste of time.

A wonderful interpretation of the late Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas by Javier Bardem makes this film worthwhileIt appears that this great writer was just destined for a life of tragedy.From the time of living with an outrageous grandfather to his university years followed by enthusiasm leading to disgust with the Castro Administration, Bardem has the right appeal as the intellectually vulnerable youth who chose homosexuality as his way of life.From the time of trumped up charges against him for allegedly molesting a youth, it was all down-hill in his life with his eventual escape to New York followed by a fatal illness.This film reinforces the idea of the closed society of Cuba's Castro.

The true story of homosexual Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem) the film charts his eventful and troubled life attempting to do what he loves best in a 1960's Cuba where the regime brand him a counter revolutionary and traitor. Starting from his humble beginnings in a small village, his later life in the city where he befriends other homosexuals, writers and poets which leads to imprisonment and torture to the last part of his life in New York.Javier Bardem is believable and excellent in the lead, Johnny Depp is also very competent in his dual roles and Sean Penn makes a decent cameo appearance. The cinematography is top notch, direction impeccable and score complements each scene well making them atmospheric and moving. Throughout we hear snippets of the writers poetry and musings which add to the emotionally charged nature of the film. A tender and well shot story of an important figure in Cuban literature, well worth seeing.