Before Night Falls places its themes of sexual tolerance and freedom of expression in a context that interestingly emphasizes the activities themselves without ever muting the underlying messages.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 19, 2023

Schnabel's heartbreaking movie boasts an Oscar-caliber performance by Javier Bardem as Arenas and a pair of extraordinary cameos by Johnny Depp.

| May 27, 2022

Director Schnabel makes all the right moves, not the least of which is the witty double-casting of Johnny Depp.

| Apr 19, 2022

This could have been a compelling movie about a wonderful writer, but instead it's a tedious, pointless mess. After spending over 2 hours with Arenas, I still knew nothing about him. Javier Bardem's great performance seemed to be a complete waste.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 10, 2013

One of the first features about Castro's impact on artists and homosexuals, this biopic is well acted by Bardem

| Original Score: B | Apr 30, 2011

"Before Night Falls" exuberantly portrays a writer whose legacy remains an acutely observant childhood spirit that no perversion of politics could break. Javier Bardem blends the swagger of Robert Downey Jr. and the brooding of a young Al Pacino.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 25, 2010

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Schabel's most recent work fails to move me. While the story of Reinaldo Arenas is tragic enough to be interesting (and Javier Bardem's performance sympathetic) the film as a whole simply seems long and indulgent.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 21, 2007

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 12, 2004

despite a real commitment to Arenas and his work, the film just falls short.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 25, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 20, 2003

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 10, 2003

Saddled with a wandering opening and an equally listless conclusion, a more fitting name for this two hour-plus biopic might well be Before Night Falters.

| Original Score: C- | Feb 17, 2003

The cinematography is beautiful and clearly shows the director's artistic bent, but the storytelling is often disjointed. . . . Ultimately, Before Night Falls is more successful as a Javier Bardem showcase than a movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 8, 2003

[Bardem] simply does what the script calls for him to do, which is basically sustain a look of pain for two-hours plus.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 8, 2002

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2002

There is something genuinely moving in Bardem's Rabelaisian poet...

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 30, 2002

Great performances...boring movie.

Full Review | Jul 9, 2002

no one can say Schnabel doesn't know how to create a marvelous shot when he wants to. Telling a cohesive story, however, is a skill he has yet to master.

| Jun 10, 2002