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45
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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49
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65
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xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
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43
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69
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Before Night Falls
Universal acclaim
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Reynaldo Arenas (memoir)
Lázaro Gómez Carriles
Cunningham O'Keefe
Julian Schnabel
Directed by: Julian Schnabel
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 22, 2000
DVD: May 22, 2001
Running Time: 125 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong sexual content, some language and brief violence
Starring Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Johnny Depp, and Sean Penn
A richly imagined joumey into the life and writings of the brilliant Cuban author and exile Reinaldo Arenas. (Fine Line Features)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Basquiat The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Newsweek David Ansen
This powerful, lyrical meditation on Arenas's life achieves a kind of hallucinatory urgency as it leaps and twists through his life.
Film.com Peter Brunette
With Before Night Falls, Schnabel has moved to an entirely new plane of cinematic achievement.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
It's huge and bewildering and it hurts to watch, but it hurts so good it's gorgeous.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
In uniting to honor Arenas, Bardem and Schnabel create something extraordinary.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Arenas' life zigzags before us in a manner as heady and unpredictable as it must have felt to the man who lived it.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
It's an horrific and tragic story, but somehow made beautiful through the care and attention of Schnabel's direction and Bardem's tender, unforgettable performance.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
A dense, emotionally satisfying portrait of a man, a time and a place.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
The film's ephemeral, semi-evasive lyricism ultimately works as a modest frame for Bardem's tender, deft portrait, which is in turn suitably expansive and rooted in the most concrete details -- Arenas's pride and anger, his unsentimental wit and defiant vitality.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
This is a sad, passionate, beautifully wrought story, and Bardem's portrait of Arenas is at once daring and deeply moving.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Most of all it's the emotional and spiritual arc of an exile, in all its terrible isolation, that gives ''Before Night Falls'' its power.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A dreamy, passionate ode to freedom -- of thought, of expression, of every person's innate right to simply be.
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A thoughtful, bittersweet film biography of the Cuban writer that captures both his irrepressible spirit and his sometimes overwhelming melancholy.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is a little something of the spoiled masochist about Arenas. One would not say he seeks misery, but he wears it like a badge of honor, and we can see his mistakes approaching before he does. This is not a weakness in the film but one of its intriguing strengths
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
This is an art film in the true sense of the term, engaging the mind, senses and emotions in a way that only movies at their best can do.
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
It's such a sensory experience; in its best moments, the film washes over you like a fever dream.
Dallas Observer David Ehrenstein
Arenas' story is a downer that doesn't produce despair. That's because of the exceptional bravery of Arenas himself, and the understanding that both Schnabel and his extraordinary leading man, Javier Bardem, have of him, his world, and his time.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
As good as it is, Before Night Falls might not work if Schnabel hadn't found a leading man to hold it together and the Spanish actor Javier Bardem has the understated charisma to pull it off.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Anchored by a charismatic and accessible performance by Javier Bardem as star-crossed Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, this florid examination of an artist's coming of age, of cultures in collusion and conflict, is difficult to resist.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Like a deathbed dream it leapfrogs through Arenas's life, reconstructing crucial moments as a succession of bright, feverish illuminations.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Politics and humanism find an engrossing balance in this ambitious drama based on the life of Reinaldo Arenas, a gay Cuban poet who was persecuted by the homophobic Castro regime.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A personal eulogy, from one artist to another, and an indictment of all systems of government that deny people the right to free expression and the full realization of their talent.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
An impressive piece of filmmaking, with lively and suggestive depictions of pre- and postrevolutionary Cuba (shot in Mexico).
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Anyone expecting a hard-hitting biography will be disappointed by Julian Schnabel's soft-edged, dreamy and relatively nonpolitical film.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Under Schnabel's direction, it becomes stilted and static, if not simplistic.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Diana gave it a10:
The movie's style reflects Arenas' work well, and incorporates his poetry and fiction into some of the major biographical aspects. please watch the original with subtitles; it is so much better. and let it prompt you to read some arenas!
Blanco A. gave it a 10:
Just see it. It will be a travesty when Javier Bardem is passed over for the Academy Award (unless, of course, Ed Harris wins for "Pollack"). This film is beautiful, hopeful, and inspirational. I'll be first in line to see Bardem's next film.
Desi M. gave it a 10:
Engrossing, beautifully photographed, hilarious, painful, joyous, tragic, triumphant. If you have ANY interest in this film's subject matter, do NOT miss it, period.
Jon C. gave it a 10:
Best film released last year. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Love it.
Anthony Z. gave it a 10:
Rich and talented storytelling with graceful, subtle profundity.
Marlon G. gave it a 10:
Impresive. Bardem is just amazing.
