Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Piñero

EMAILPRINTMiramax Films

Piñero reviews
40
10.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Leon Ichaso

Directed by: Leon Ichaso

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 14, 2001
DVD: July 16, 2002

Running Time: 100 minutes, Color / BW

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for drug use, strong language and sexuality

Starring Benjamin Bratt, Giancarlo Esposito, Talisa Soto, Nelson Vasquez, Rita Moreno, and Mandy Patinkin

Benjamin Bratt stars in the true story of the turbulent and creative life of Puerto Rican poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero. (Miramax Films)

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...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

A daring, free-spirited and ultimately moving performance by Benjamin Bratt lies at the beating heart of Pinero.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Ichaso moves easily between a black-and-white past and a full-color present, maintaining a pace as buoyant and rhythmic as the beat of the infectious Latin music that accompanies the film.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Loren King

It wisely lets us hear Pinero's words for ourselves, and in the end, they echo louder than the images that accompany them.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

It is a career-defining performance that could catapult the 37-year-old actor beyond bland romantic leads and into the kinds of juicy anti-heroic parts once gobbled up by Mr. Hoffman and Robert De Niro.

Read Full Review >
60

TV Guide Ken Fox

Ichaso tells Piñero's story through a sometimes disorienting series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, fracturing the time frame to suit the film's internal rhythms, rather than any coherent time line.

Read Full Review >
58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Piñero never comes close to convincing us that this guy is worth a movie at all.

Read Full Review >
50

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

What Ichaso does do is take us on a dizzying, constantly moving ride through an exciting decade in the blossoming of "Nuyorican" culture with its most flamboyant figure as our focus.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A biopic that is as messy as the life it details.

40

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A well-intentioned, reverential but unenlightening portrait. It pays tribute to the artist. Yet it doesn't scrutinize him.

Read Full Review >
40

LA Weekly Steven Mikulan

The main drawback is Claudio Chea's vertiginous camera work -- and the print's continual alternations between black-and-white and color add nothing but a distracting ornamentation.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Not a man, but the romanticizing of him. A lot of jive-shit.

Read Full Review >
40

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Bratt's fast-talking, all-attitude interpretation is showboating without soul -- which can be said of the entire movie.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Rita Kempley

This character was an abusive swine. Perhaps it would be best to let his art stand on its own.

Read Full Review >
30

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

At its most indulgent and posturing, Piñero plays like a movie the man himself might've made, between scores.

Read Full Review >
30

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

There's a strong movie in this life, but writer-director Leon Ichaso ("Sugar Hill") hasn't found it.

Read Full Review >
20

Variety Dennis Harvey

Hectic, sketchy and finally dull.

Read Full Review >
20

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A sustained piece of showboating mythmaking, and something of a snow job.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Odie A. gave it a 10:
I think benjamin bratt did a terrific job in this movie, it was an mind altering adventure of poetic rythms acted out with passion, when i saw ben in this movie i saw pinero, a modern genius of a man who needed his moment in history to be a little brighter in my eyes, he portrayed this artist with conviction soul authority with the leadership of a che or malcom x....one of the best movies ive ever seen.

Anna gave it a 10:
I feel that all of the negative feedback comes from people with no open mind and no love for art. Benjamin Bratt played the role to its fullest. I "felt" what he was saying. I could almost believe that somewhere in Benjamin was Pinero... Benjamin you are on my favorite actors list.. Good Job!!!

Anonymous gave it a 10:
Despite the heavy negative criticism, this movie as a piece of film-as-art stands apart from the rest. The multilayed visuals and constant pushing of the visual aesthetic keeps this movie going. Benjamin Bratt, I didn't think you had it in you, you gave one of the best perfomances of the year!

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use