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Poster for Piñero

Piñero

2001 · 1h 43m · R Drama
Directed by Leon Ichaso

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Overview

"Piñero" tells the story of the explosive life of a Latino icon, the gay poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero, whose urban poetry is recognized as a pre-cursor to rap and hip-hop. After doing time in hard-core Sing-Sing for petty thefts and drug dealing, Piñero's prison experiences developed into the 1974 Tony-nominated play Short Eyes. The resulting notoriety and fame was too much for the Latino bad-boy genius who retreated to the darker corners of New York City.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
43%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Overlapping the artist's biography and his work, writer-director Leon Ichaso pointedly reflects the chaos in his subject's shortish life, but he links the artist's frustrations and talent in the usual manner: as cause and effect.

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
Rotten

A scattershot stab at a fascinating life and times.

Dennis Harvey, Variety
Rotten

Flashily but irritatingly shot, full of unmotivated switches from colour to b/w, sudden flashbacks, mannered slow mo and jump cuts, this is hardly a subtle evocation of its subject's life.

Derek Adams, Time Out
Fresh

A vivid rendering of the complexities of the artist's soul, and a notable attempt to convey the trajectory of a volatile creative life.

Loren King, Chicago Tribune
Rotten

Bratt's performance is as steady and consistent as the film is frustrating.

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

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