Review
The Night Buffalo
- Director
- Jorge Hernandez Aldana
- Year
- 2007
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris
- Review date
- Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Manuel (Diego Luna) is having an affair with Tania (Liz Gallardo), the girlfriend of his best friend Gregorio (Gabriel González). The latter was put in an institution after diagnosed with schizophrenia and was just released, only to commit suicide soon after. Before passing he left Manuel a box filled with photos, letters and pieces of papers that start to haunt him to a breaking point.
Pic was directed by Jorge Hernandez Aldana, based on the novel by the acclaimed Guillermo Arriaga, which was turned into a screenplay by both. I have no idea if the book actually made any sense or if there was a point to it; maybe I just didn’t get it but I’m not afraid to say it and I certainly don’t think I’m alone. The movie that was born from it is an utterly pretentious mess. I’ve actually read interviews with the director and writer/producer in which they try to explain what the story is about and its significance (something about love and sexuality and obsession and youth), but even then I don’t get it. I try to think back and see if I missed something, if it was so profound that only a few will catch the drift, but it’s useless.
This is essentially the story of a no-good guy (why does he always seem to have free time by the way?) who for some reason is a (destructive) chick magnet but who can’t seem to find happiness in the arms of anybody, much less in those of his supposed true love, Tania (a truly enigmatic character, and not in a good way), because he’s haunted by the memory of his dead friend. There’s also a thriller element when he starts to receive letters from an anonymous source that link him to both Gregorio and Tania, but even this aspect is preposterous and totally uninteresting. The best bits in the movie belong to the flashbacks when we can actually witness his relationship with the much more interesting Gregorio, but they go nowhere.
The title comes from a reference by Gregorio in which he states that he is haunted by a buffalo at nights. He also thinks that earwigs are taking over his body. And none of this matters really. I tried to find an allegory, a metaphor, anything, but couldn’t come up with anything.
Oh, and sex plays a very important role in the story. Manuel and Tania are shown getting it on so many times that it becomes laughable. He also has encounters with two other girls for apparently no other reason than to show he is a sexually active guy. Like I cared…
Production values are merely ok for the type of story being told, with a very gloomy atmosphere courtesy of Héctor Ortega’s cinematography and Diana Quiroz’s production design. The score by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is exasperating; it only makes the movie seem longer than it is, and believe me, it’s interminable.
Performances are as perfunctory as the feelings the movie exudes. Diego Luna, an actor I dislike because he always seems to be playing a variation of the same character, is as ho-hum as usual. Only signs of life come from newcomer Gabriel González, who does a lot with very little. Liz Gallardo is stiff as a wooden stick, and a small appearance by local sensation Camila Sodi suffers from a case of gratuitous nudity at its worse.
I admire Arriaga and his writing, I do, but I’ve always thought he is way too pretentious for his own good and every movie he’s been attached to has suffered from this illness to worsening degrees. I hope this is the tilting point and that it all goes upward from here.
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Other reviews of The Night Buffalo (2007): Groucho
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