O Búfalo da Noite

Explicit and disturbing, El Bufalo de la Noche is the story of a young man, Manuel, embarking into the twisted psyche of his best friend Gregorio after Gregorio's suicide. The film focuses on three periods of time in the lives of Manuel and Gregorio. Unlike the tacky portrayal of times passed found in most movies (usually shown with a change in hair style) the effects of pain and loss can be seen and felt in the outstanding performances of the players. Indeed, the performances of Diego Luna, Irene Azuela, Liz Gallardo and Gabriel González can be called nothing short of brilliant. The grim tone of the film reflects the darkness of the mind, the struggle between loyalty and temptation and helplessness in the face of human weakness. If you are looking for something easy and straightforward to watch, rent Pirates of the Caribbean. If you want to see something complex and intensely visceral, something that will leave you with shivers, watch El Bufalo de la Noche.

First of all I have to say that the book is really bad (Arriaga is one of the most overrated writers in Mexico) the characters are really lame, and they have nothing appealing, so after reading this crap I wasn't expecting nothing at all... But I went to see the film anyway and let me tell you that it's worse than the book, first of all, I think Diego Luna is overrated too, I have never liked him and after watching this film I think I hate him, I don't want to see him ever again, believe me that if you see him naked and having sex with all the cast you would feel the same way too... and another thing it looks that he's no good in bed...sorry!!!! For the rest of the characters they are no good, they just lay there naked, that's it. I think this film just wanted to shock us, the way Asi del precipicio did, I don't know which one is worse, no story, no substance.......nothing!!! It's a shame that they still make this kind of films in Mexico -they look like the ficheras genre- I think that they are better writers than Arriaga and better actors than Luna - I can name a lot- Anyway don't spend your time and your money in this film, because you're going to regret it... as I did

This film is SO Overrated that it just hurts, i didn't get what the "message" of the film is, and neither both of my friends who went to see this thing with me. If Guillermo Arriaga, that snob who specializes on writing pretentious and stupid screenplays where the characters seems to be total idiots with no common sense whatsoever, wanted us to realize that 'love make us do anything' he accomplishes nothing but an endless line of cliché after cliché.

There is the proverbial love triangle between two best friends and the girlfriend of one of them, also including the sister of one of the guys. We never get their motivations or a single sense of explanation for their actions.

The dialogs are SO lame, so plastic, they are heard like cheesy bits from even cheesier love songs and pieces from a night of heavy drinking and weed smoking.

There are characters with nothing to do except get naked in front of the camera (and I don't have a problem with that) but don't try to deceive us by saying that is the 'great performance of their careers'.

The only thing I liked about the film, was the music, which was written by 'The Mars Volta'. Out of that, I don't think there was any other thing to highlight about this.

The phrase that better describes my reaction to this film is "Guillermo Arriaga you're full of crap!"

did not read the book, it would be explain to me more, probably, but looking a film I have drawn absolutely other conclusions - not Gregorio was revenges Manuel, but friends Gregorio (they was betrayed Manuel, too) and own conscience. Manuel the kind, good person, but he have one defect - he should betray and he betrays for the sake of love which he searches in different people and finds, but it does not suffice him, he the addict of love - all women for him is marijuana type, only Tania - opium. I think it's a magnificent film though with it is easy pornography, and Diego Luna creates a fine image of the person lost in the feelings

"El Bufalo de la Noche" is one of those cases when you know the thing is going to be bad after some 20 minutes of watching and for some odd reasons you keep going just to see how worse it can get. There's a magnet in there that pulls you in, leaving you hooked for brief instants, but most of the time you'll be off, mind going other places and you probably fall asleep time and time again (like I did). If the purpose of such "movie" is to thrill and make us involved with the "plot" keeping us suspenseful why insisting in presenting a slow paced drama that goes nowhere? It's most gripping element is also the most gratuitous, most random and completely pointless: the sex scenes. That's why you stay awake while watching this.

The director has claimed in interviews that "The Night Buffalo" was all about portraying two of the most worrying (and overlooked) problems of in Mexico, the young schizophrenics and young suicidal, a social problem with a high rating in the country. They needed to be visible in the movies one day. Writer Guillermo Arriaga (WHY? You have amazing scripts out there, why invest time in writing stuff like this?) with this novel and screenplay seemed to be looking in other direction, conceiving this as a sort of psychological thriller embedded in sex and strangeness disguised as plot twists. The most I could get was this: it revolves around Manuel (Diego Luna) and the way he deals with the suicide of his friend Gregorio (Gabriel González), a schizophrenic whose life has spiralled out of control after finding out that his girlfriend (Liz Gallardo) was cheating on him with Manuel. Most of the time is centered on Manuel's flashbacks about their friendship, we get the sense that something is about to go very wrong between both since Manuel already see the signs that Gregorio is getting more insane each day goes by; and it's also centered in the things Gregorio left behind, a box with objects and one more mystery to be solved by the protagonist.

Somehow the biggest concern of the movie revolves in the explicit sex scenes, and it goes between Manuel and Tania, Gregorio's girlfriend, and also with Gregorio's sister. Actors are comfortable in doing those, Diego is always a treat while being part of those and there's plenty of him if you know what I mean (el guapo es muy caliente!), the scenes were greatly filmed (except the car scene which was very weird) but they're pointless to the movie's cause. And it's a severe bad case of movies/characters confusing sex with love. I remember when love was something that involved action and not just sticking sexual members into each other. He says he loves Tania more than his friend did, but at no point such was presented, it's just infatuation, the urgency of wanting to be with the other. For what? Those characters aren't described sufficiently or interesting enough so we can believe they're in love with each other, or that they have something special to share.

The mystery, the delusions, the clues, the so-called buffalo of the night, the whispered voices in the night...who cares? It's so dull and poorly put, ultimately you're there for nothing, less than nothing. Pathetic. I won't say it was bad acted. Luna was decent, but his character was so lifeless, charmless yet all the girls got the hots for him; González steals the show from him in his brief scenes, very believable as someone who is losing his mind but even so he managed to understand that he couldn't trust his best friend. I would have enjoyed a frightening confront between both instead of each scaring women on their own, in two separate occasions towards the conclusion.

There's very little gain from "The Night Buffalo", so why bother? Unless you're only in it for the exciting scenes which are not all that exciting. As for the pinhead who put this film as from the adult genre on this website, please go watch real adult movies before updating stuff in here. "The Brown Bunny" had way more things - real, by the way - than this movie and still isn't categorized as such. If you go a step forward and end up buying this, at least it'll be useful as a replacement for sleeping pills. I pity Luna and Arriaga fans for falling into this entrapment. They are great but not in here. 3/10