PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

filizeyuboglu-236-407113 2 months ago we were in Cuba.... I wanted to watch this film hoping to see some of the parts of the Cuba and remember my memories... But, I stop seeing the film at 48. minutes since I found the movie very anti-revolutionary :( Can one expect the opposite from a US film? Film just focused on gay issues and try to show the socialism bad! Can anybody tell that capitalism is very nice? Very good for all levels of people? or defense capitalism? Pls try to learn the system in Cuba. Still making films to show the socialism bad is funny and doesn't give to me good feelings about the director and the producers. As a second point, it's very disturbing -- in the film -- that Cuban in Cuba speak English!!! WHY??!?!? This frequently happens in many films which disturbs me too much and causes me to stop seeing the film. I'm not sure if the following is spoiler? I don't think so. I'm not against the gays of course, i know that they born that way, but we watched many films on gays.. I personally don't want to see them kissing and having sex. This is just the capitalism do; continuously making this kind of movies, etc..

Diego_rjc This movie tells the story of Reinaldo Arenas, a homosexual Cuban writer and novelist that was chased during the communist period in Cuba. Only from this brief summary, you can see how powerful this life story is, and even though I haven't read the novel of the same name in which the movie is based on, it seems like the writers took full advantage of Reinaldo's story, going from his poor childhood in the Cuban countryside to his exile in the United States.The main role here goes to Spanish-born actor Javier Bardem. The only movie with him that I've watched is No Country for Old Men, and though he is outstanding in that picture, he does a much better job here. His acting is absolutely perfect. In every scene he is (almost the whole movie), he steals your attention. He is Reinaldo Arenas in this picture, no question about it. He deserved every award he got. And he does that with a supporting cast that has names like Sean Penn (in a very tiny appearance), Johnny Deep (playing two roles), Brazilian-born director Hector Babenco (also a small role), Diego Luna and other unknown actors.Julian Schnabel also does a very nice job directing. Even though a few of the shots reminded me a lot of Schnabel's latter The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, with very similar underwater sequences, shots of people in open cars, and open shots of the town and the woods, I appreciate his style. One shot in particular that is worth mentioning is the one in the beginning of the movie that comes out of the hole Reinaldo is playing and becomes an open shot of the small town. Beautiful work of directing. Another aspect that is worth mentioning is the photography. Both directors of photography do an excellent job, and the movie looks almost like a painting most of the time.From all this I have mentioned, this movie would get a 9 rating. But a few things bothered me. First, the movie is quite boring and slow most of the time, because of the lousy editing by Michael Berenbaum. You could easily cut off 20 minutes of the film. And also there are too many childhood memories throughout the movie completely unnecessary. But what bothered me the most is the language issue. This movie suffers from the same problem as Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata. Both of them have great acting and directing, and all the character's speak in English, but they should be talking Spanish! If this is Cuba, you expect a Spanish-talking picture, but instead you get a few random lines in the correct language. I know this is made to attract north-American audiences, but they should be faithful to the story. Thankfully, Julian Schnabel doesn't make the same mistake in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. There, they speak French in France!Overral, this is a great film with outstanding acting and directing, but the language issue and the lousy editing keeps this movie alway from having a better rating. A must-see for Javier Bardem and Johnny Deep fans (the only time you can see him as a transsexual).7,5 out of 10, that in this case goes back to a 7.

secondtake Before Night Falls (2000)A Lyrical Fight for Survival, without the SurvivalFilmed with such undistracting and unrelenting imagination, Before Night Falls is not only beautiful and seamless, it's a surprise, frame after frame. And it manages to keep flowing visually, with invention, without distracting from the personal plight of the central character, the writer Reinaldo Arenas. Add the full blooded performance by Javier Bardem, who is something of a one man show, and the movie is intrinsically special.Julian Schnabel is turning out to be a better movie director than artist, maybe because his tendency toward formal invention made his art contrived while in the movie world this formalism is embedded with more evident meaning, and so it has something to support beyond its own effects. His subjects show a consistency that reveals an artistic devotion to himself, yes, as an auteur, or as a concerned person. Herzog might be another good example, offhand. From the flawed Basquiat to the compelling (and depressing) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Schnabel digs into those people who are pushed to be exceptional. All three of these films, at least, are about individuals with enormous talent and resolve, but they are all three also driven by circumstance to be even greater than themselves, or to make themselves into something beyond what even they expected. All of Schnabel's films are artfully made without being indulgent--even the exaggerated special effects used in Diving Bell are necessary.And all three of these examples end in affecting, very personal tragedy. After the Lou Reed concert film diversion (which I haven't seen), it'll be worth watching what this relative newcomer to the movies brings out next.

Carson Trent Sorry to say that, because I admire Bardem in any movie, as is the case here, too, but in my opinion the movie grazing avoids being in the scabrous gay porn category. I haven't read the memoirs of Arenas, nor have I read any of his work, but this movie doesn't play on his artistic views, but on his personal experiences in a time of political and social turmoil, combined with perhaps what hurt him most, gay discrimination. It's hard, watching the kind of personal life he led, to be sympathetic to the character of Arenas, not because he was homosexual, but because judging by this screening of his memoirs, it looks like the only thing on his mind was sex. Kinky, uninhibited sex. Nothing wrong with that, basically, but I believe some aspects of the personal life, like sexual preferences and habits, should remain private. I really didn't understand anything about him as an artist by watching this movie. Instead I saw the sexual frustration that haunted him, and a tad of his political views. I saw great performances by all, especially Bardem, Wincott and Depp, although the latter put himself in a quite tasteless light. I know the part, required it, but couldn't get the point of the whole endeavor.