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Poster for Mala Noche

Mala Noche

If you fuck with the bull, you get the horn!

1987 · 1h 15m · Not Rated Drama, Romance
Directed by Gus Van Sant

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Overview

Walt is a lonely convenience store clerk who has fallen in love with a Mexican migrant worker named Johnny. Though Walt has little in common with the object of his affections — including a shared language — his desire to possess Johnny prompts a sexual awakening that results in a tangled love triangle.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
96%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Even at the start of his career, Van Sant has always been an artist who has savored the bittersweet pleasure of sadness and pain.

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Fresh

Of all Van Sant's movies, Mala Noche is the rawest, most personal, and least freighted. It's the one fans should see for the simplest inkling into Van Sant's complex artistic roots.

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh

Van Sant would later refine some of the blunter stylistic turns into a wondrous visual poetry; his ability to capture the addictive pull of desire, however, remains compelling even in its crudest state.

Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York
Fresh

Underseen but not exactly neglected, Mala Noche isn't in the same league as the recent smash IFC revival of Killer of Sheep. But this small, sensitive, wondrously likable debut occupies a nearby nook in the DIY pantheon.

Nathan Lee, Village Voice
Fresh

Offbeat, offhand, and at times off-the-wall.

Mark Salisbury, Time Out

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