''Mala Noche'' (also known as ''Bad Night'') is a 1986 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

based on Walt Curtis'

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Bec ...

. It marked Gus Van Sant's directorial film debut, and stars Tim Streeter, Doug Cooeyate, Ray Monge, and Nyla McCarthy. The film was shot on

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

Plot

The story follows relationship between Walt, a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

store clerk, and two younger Mexican boys, Johnny and Roberto Pepper. Walt and his female friend convince them to come over for dinner, but Johnny and Pepper have to return to their cheap hotel because another friend is locked out. Walt makes his first pass at Johnny by offering him $15 to sleep with him. Johnny refuses and runs to his hotel room, leaving Roberto locked out with nowhere to spend the night but Walt's. Settling for second best, Walt lies down next to Pepper and allows him on top for sex. However, he does not give up on trying to win over Johnny. The film progresses from there into not always clearly defined relationships, unbalanced by age, language, money, race and sex. Roberto gets shot by the police. Johnny successfully resists Walt's loving advances.

Cast

* Tim Streeter as Walt Curtis * Doug Cooeyate as Johnny * Ray Monge as Roberto Pepper * Nyla McCarthy as Betty * Don Chambers as Himself * Walt Curtis as George

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a rating of 96% from 25 reviews with the consensus: "''Mala Noche'' is a raw and gritty portrait of desire, doomed romance, and rejection -- and marks debuting director Gus Van Sant as a filmmaker with a gratifyingly personal touch."

References

External links

* * * *
Official French site

''Mala Noche: Other Love''
an essay by Dennis Lim at the Criterion Collection 1986 films 1980s English-language films Films directed by Gus Van Sant 1986 drama films Films set in Portland, Oregon Films shot in Portland, Oregon American LGBT-related films 1986 LGBT-related films Films with screenplays by Gus Van Sant American drama films American black-and-white films LGBT-related drama films 1986 directorial debut films 1988 drama films 1988 films 1980s American films {{LGBT-drama-film-stub