I watched this movie since I have liked van Sant's more mainstream movies such as "Good Will Hunting," and "Milk," but also some of his more experimental works like "Gerry," and "Paranoid Park." But this film left me cold; watching it could lead to your own Mala Noche.
We are taken to the back-streets of Portland, Oregon to follow the life of Walt Curtis who mans a liquor store. Ultimately it seems that every sort of low life shows up in Walt's store. Early on a couple of Mexican immigrants, Johnny and Roberto, show up and Walt becomes sexually obsessed with the attractive Johnny. But Johnny doesn't really want to reciprocate and most of the movie is spent with Walt dreaming of scoring with Johnny. When Johnny disappears, Roberto is willing to fill in in a pinch. The major sex scene between Roberto and Walt *is* filmed with some delicacy, if you like that sort of thing.
The low budget is quite in evidence in the harsh lighting and the shadowy backgrounds. Maybe this is art, but it simply resulted in eyestrain for me.
So the film does say something about illegal immigration and how there are great pockets of sadness, poverty, and loneliness in the United States, but I already knew that and was not enlightened by spending an hour and a half seeing it illustrated. In fact this movie left me quite depressed.
The script for the movie is based on a story by Walt Curtis. I could only make it about half way through the film about the real life Curtis that is included on the DVD. As this Alan Ginsberg wannabe ranted on I became more and more disgusted with him, and with the film.
Final opinion: ugh.
We are taken to the back-streets of Portland, Oregon to follow the life of Walt Curtis who mans a liquor store. Ultimately it seems that every sort of low life shows up in Walt's store. Early on a couple of Mexican immigrants, Johnny and Roberto, show up and Walt becomes sexually obsessed with the attractive Johnny. But Johnny doesn't really want to reciprocate and most of the movie is spent with Walt dreaming of scoring with Johnny. When Johnny disappears, Roberto is willing to fill in in a pinch. The major sex scene between Roberto and Walt *is* filmed with some delicacy, if you like that sort of thing.
The low budget is quite in evidence in the harsh lighting and the shadowy backgrounds. Maybe this is art, but it simply resulted in eyestrain for me.
So the film does say something about illegal immigration and how there are great pockets of sadness, poverty, and loneliness in the United States, but I already knew that and was not enlightened by spending an hour and a half seeing it illustrated. In fact this movie left me quite depressed.
The script for the movie is based on a story by Walt Curtis. I could only make it about half way through the film about the real life Curtis that is included on the DVD. As this Alan Ginsberg wannabe ranted on I became more and more disgusted with him, and with the film.
Final opinion: ugh.