Mala Noche is a 1985 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 written and directed by Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant

Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...

, based on an autobiographical novel by the Oregon poet Walt Curtis

Walt Curtis

Walt Curtis is a poet, novelist and painter from Portland, Oregon. He is mainly known for his autobiographical work, Mala Noche , which became the basis for Gus Van Sant's 1985 film of the same name....

. The movie was shot in 16 mm, mostly black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

. Mala Noche is the first feature film

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 by Gus Van Sant. It was shot entirely on location in Portland, Oregon.

Plot

The story follows relationship between Walt (Tim Streeter), a homosexual store clerk, and two younger Mexican boys, Johnny (Doug Cooeyate) and Roberto Pepper (Ray Monge). Walt and his female friend (Nyla McCarthy) convince them to come over for dinner, but Johnny and Pepper have to return to their cheap hotel because another friend is locked out. Walt makes his first pass at Johnny by offering him $15 to sleep with him. Johnny refuses and runs to his hotel room, leaving Pepper locked out with nowhere to spend the night but Walt's. Settling for second best, Walt lies down next to Pepper and allows him on top for sex. However, he does not give up on trying to win over Johnny. The film progresses from there into not always clearly defined relationships, unbalanced by age, language, race, sexuality, and money.

Cast

• Tim Streeter as Walt Curtis
• Doug Cooeyate as Johnny
• Ray Monge as Roberto Pepper
• Nyla McCarthy as Betty
• Don Chambers
  Don Chambers
  Don Chambers is author and artist for the Golden Pencil award-winning newspaper comic strip Mannequins.Mannequins was first published in the Arthur Graphic-Clarion, Arthur, Illinois, in 1996. Mannequins was the first newspaper comic strip to feature computer-generated and physical 3D characters...
  
   as Himself
• Walt Curtis
  Walt Curtis
  Walt Curtis is a poet, novelist and painter from Portland, Oregon. He is mainly known for his autobiographical work, Mala Noche , which became the basis for Gus Van Sant's 1985 film of the same name....
  
  as George