Remembering Great Films of the Decade: Before Night Falls (2000)

My husband and I nursed our New Year's hangovers with hot-and-sour soup and a late-night viewing of Before Night Falls. Julian Schnabel's 2000 bio-pic chronicles the life of Reinaldo Arenas, the Cuban poet, novelist, and political dissident. This movie is beautiful, if a little disjointed. Javier Bardem gives a dreamy and nuanced performance as the gay writer struggling with sexual and artistic oppression. I liked Schnabel's 2007 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly even more, I must say. It's a much more cohesive and moving film.