Before Night FallsMovie Reviews

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    In uniting to honor Arenas, Bardem and Schnabel create something extraordinary. Read full review

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Edward Guthmann

    It's an horrific and tragic story, but somehow made beautiful through the care and attention of Schnabel's direction and Bardem's tender, unforgettable performance. Read full review

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Arenas' life zigzags before us in a manner as heady and unpredictable as it must have felt to the man who lived it. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Tribune | Mark Caro

    This is an art film in the true sense of the term, engaging the mind, senses and emotions in a way that only movies at their best can do. Read full review

  • 88
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    This is a sad, passionate, beautifully wrought story, and Bardem's portrait of Arenas is at once daring and deeply moving. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    There is a little something of the spoiled masochist about Arenas. One would not say he seeks misery, but he wears it like a badge of honor, and we can see his mistakes approaching before he does. This is not a weakness in the film but one of its intriguing strengths Read full review

  • 88
    Boston Globe | Jay Carr

    Most of all it's the emotional and spiritual arc of an exile, in all its terrible isolation, that gives ''Before Night Falls'' its power. Read full review

  • 80
    Mr. Showbiz | Kevin Maynard

    It's such a sensory experience; in its best moments, the film washes over you like a fever dream. Read full review

  • 75
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    A personal eulogy, from one artist to another, and an indictment of all systems of government that deny people the right to free expression and the full realization of their talent. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    Plays like a labor of love. Read full review

Before Night Falls Movie Reviews + Ratings

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