On B List of Movie Reviews

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Before Night Falls (2000)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 4/25

BNightF
4/25: Reinaldo Arenas?

Mm...never heard of him. I'm surprised that he merited a biopic after finishing Before Night Falls. I learned some things: he was born in Cuba, was gay, published some novels, had sex with guys, became a prisoner, got shipped by the government to Miami in Scarface-style, and died of complications from AIDS in New York City. See how long that took to read what I said? About five seconds. That's the whole movie which took two hours and thirteen minutes. In other words, it's too fucking long.

I blame the director. He can't be showing random stuff against the landscape and a whole lot of nothing in between. I looked at the timer a lot and asked myself, "How much longer?" There must be plenty of substance, or there's no movie. It's simple as that. Try watching The Greatest which recounted the events in Muhammad Ali's life. It only lasted one hour and forty-one minutes, packing a lot of punch, regardless of the embellishments. The other movie made up a lot of stuff as well while leaving tons out (you'll see by taking the time to read a bit of the writer's biography). Ironically, I was thinking of a poorly made biopic which turned out to be Basquiat and didn't realize it was directed by the same guy who did Before Night Falls.

I don't want to beat up Javier Bardem because he did a fine job, but he was cast in a vanity role. It's one of those movies that showcase the panorama of an actor. I can see he knows how to look this or that way in several phases of the character's life with the ability to speak English and Spanish. In other words, Before Night Falls is Javier Bardem's audition tape for Hollywood, and obviously, his profile rose quickly afterwards.

As for the rest of the cast, I found some to be ridiculous starting with Sean Penn's two-minute cameo appearance. Why is he in this? He isn't a Cuban. Ditto for Johnny Depp. I was actually okay with him being a transvestite. But when he played a different character later, that confused me as in "are we talking about the same person or not?" What a boneheaded mistake. Oh, you didn't know Michael Wincott was in the movie? Yeah, but he's impossible to recognize when he played the sweaty bespectacled prisoner being interrogated in front of the court. He isn't even Cuban. Why not get Andy Garcia or Steven Bauer? Nope, Olivier Martinez was cast instead...a Frenchman!

All in all, Before Night Falls is an overlong biopic of little substance.