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Amos Lassen wrote on 02/20/2011:

“Mala Noche”
Early Van Zant
Amos Lassen
“Mala Noche” is Gus Van Zant’s first feature film and it gives a hint of what the director will later give us in his movies. Made on a very tight budget, it is a wry and perceptive look at obsession and unrequited lust. Shot in black and white, the film looks at Portland, Oregon’s skid row where handsome but cynical Walt (Tim Streeter) passes time by selling cheap wine to panhandlers. Walt had something for Latinos and he eventually becomes both fascinated by and infatuated with Johnny, a 16 year old illegal immigrant who is at times friendly and at other times abusive. Walt becomes frustrated that Johnny will not have sex with him so he becomes a sex toy for Johnny’s handsome friend, Roberto. This is one of the films that have come to define what we call New Queer Cinema.
Visually, even with its graininess, the movie is special. Van Zant waxes lyrical and his highly romantic style that he used here for the first time has gone on to become one of his trademarks. Almost as soon as the film begins, we can feel the danger in Walt’s longing but his lust so consumes him that he is unable to resist. Using the themes of desperation and the power of sexuality and emotion, the film takes the viewers and the characters on a journey down the road of unnerving behavior and instability. The sub-culture of illegal immigrants which includes both immigration authorities and the will to stay alive gives us an atmosphere that these are the rules that life must be played by. The male immigrants act with reckless abandon and they are sexually unavailable. Because they are so overtly masculine, Walt finds them that much more alluring and he is even willing to pay to have sex just to get a small f taste of what these men are like.
The movie actually tells two separate stories—one the lust of Walt for Johnny and the other is the story of Portland and the randomness of life. Portland is no more than a small town that has outgrown itself. It has a seamy underside with many people barely eking out an existence. Van Zant looks at the marginalized people of the city and shows how they differ from everyone else. The movie seems to be set in that period of time known as twilight which can also describe a state of mind and it seems to be a fragment of a larger existence.
The acting is excellent. Streeter gives a brilliant portrayal of Walt and beautifully shows how he is a victim of his own desire. Walt’s delusion is amiable and funny. All is not perfect here, however. There are moments of confusion and randomness and of tragedy but every shot of the camera is crafted with delicacy and style and any inconsistencies eventually work themselves out.
Van Zant as an openly gay man has been honest about his sexuality yet this is his only feature with an overtly gay storyline, Both “My Own Private Idaho” and his segment in “Paris Je Taime” allude to a gay subplot but “Mala Noche” delvers one with no apology. The movie depicts everything with realism and the movie gives us an ethereal beauty not often seen in cinema.

Craig Wilson wrote on 09/20/2007:

This director guy creeps me out. Mala Noche especially creeped me out. There's a point where you wonder how much is too much. I'd say it's a good dvd for someone who wants to watch something challenging with lots of boy butt.