Review By Steve Ramos

1970s Puerto Rican poet Miguel Piņero (Benjamin Bratt) with his girlfriend, Sugar (Talisa Soto), in director Leon Ichaso's bio drama Piñero.

Our first glimpse of Miguel Piñero (Benjamin Bratt) is reading poetry to his fellow Sing-Sing inmates. As Piñero, mid-'70s poet, playwright, actor, co-founder of the nuyorican Poets Café and cultural leader of New York City's Puerto Rican community, Bratt never stops talking. The words shoot from his mouth with a breathless, rambling quality. During his best moments, Bratt creates a colorful character who's lifelike and engaging. The best compliment one can say about director Leon Ichaso's bio-drama Piñero is that Bratt's performance is musical. His jazzy riffs on Piñero's destructive lifestyle match perfectly with the film's Latin Jazz soundtrack.

Telling a tortured artist story often leads to lethargic moviemaking. By embracing a stream-of-conscious directing style, Ichaso hopes to bring Piñero's story alive. The film contains frequent flashbacks and narrative flips. Ichaso shifts easily between black-and-white photography and color images. The throbbing Latin soundtrack helps move the story faster. Patches of Piñero's plays and dialogue intertwine seamlessly with his life story. Still, Ichaso stumbles over some of the film's more heavy-handed visual metaphors. An image where the needle of the Empire State Building dissolves into a heroin needle plunging into Piñero's arm is childish at best.

Piñero would be a better artist's story if it were more straightforward, like Julian Schnabel's drama about Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls. When Piñero pauses briefly from its avant-garde storytelling, the film delivers a welcome dash of adult drama. Whenever he's free of the film's experimental flash, Bratt reveals the grit and heartache of New York City in his angry facial expression and faraway stare. Piñero gives Bratt the opportunity to play a flamboyant role that's worlds apart from his recent detective character on TV's Law & Order. Bratt makes the most of the opportunity, creating heartfelt moments out of the Piñero's rooftop conversations and back alley drug deals. During these scenes, you feel as if you're eavesdropping on Piñero's life. Despite Ichaso's over reliance on edgy camerawork, Bratt turns Piñero into a performance-driven drama. In fact, Bratt is the primary reason to watch the film.

A series of reliable faces help staff Piñero's supporting cast. Mandy Patinkin is appropriately matter-of-fact as Public Theater director Joseph Papp, one of Piñero's staunchest supporters. Taliso Soto brings the film additional sass as Piñero's girlfriend, Sugar. As Piñero's longtime friend, Miguel Algarin, one of the co-founders of the nuyorican Poets Café, Giancarlo Esposito brings the film some welcome subtlety. Only Rita Moreno fails to make much of an impact, never fully capitalizing on her series of flashbacks as Piñero's mother.

Early into Piñero, it's evident that everything that's good about the movie revolves around Bratt's physical performance. His black beret and aviator sunglasses wardrobe look believably retro. Bratt is comfortable with his shaggy hair and disheveled clothes. A joint dangles from his mouth. His beard is unkempt. There are moments when you can actually feel Piñero's sweat and perspiration. When Bratt delivers lines from Piñero's writings, his husky, rat-tat-tat voice is completely at ease. Bratt's scraggly appearance and anxious voice are meant to reflect the street grit that dominated Piñero's life. Bratt is as chaotic as Piñero needs him to be. At the same time, Bratt's performance would have benefited from a movie whose storytelling was more stable.
CityBeat Grade: B.

E-mail Steve Ramos

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