The Night Buffalo (2007)

I never read this book but when i hear about the film i was very excited; first because i'm a big fan of Guillermo Arriga's first work after the success with Inarritu's films: "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". And second because i'm also a big fan of The Mars Volta so it looks like a really good film.Unlike "The Three.............", this film is more know in Mexico than in the rest of world and it gain a big attention for all the Mexican press and in consequence of all the people. So it was like a "big disappointment", because all the critic was terrible and they were expecting another "Amores Perros".I saw it in the opening day and i like it. Is about two friends: Gregorio and Manuel; when Gregorio commits suicide Manuel starts having a strange relation with Gregorio's world. The plot is good and i love the final part of the film when we saw what was the only thing that Manuel wants: the love of Tania.The cast is just OK, Diego Luna is not an actor that i admire but in this film is good and i find the nude scenes just as a normal thing in films as in life; i don't understand why all the bad comments just for those scenes. Of course the character of Camila Sodi is nothing but unnecessary as her nude but well is Camila Sodi.The music is really great, Omar Rodriguez Lopez is one of my favourites guitar players right now and is really cool to hear his music in a theater.In conclusion: Arriaga proves that he can make good and strange stories, in this case the director is not great as Inarritu but for be his first feature film is not bad. So this is a good film that have all the bad reviews just for an excessive publicity in Mexico and in less things you know about this film you will enjoy it more. 6.5 out of 10

I truly had high hopes with this film, but it turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments ever.Its visual style tries desperate to imitate "Amores Perros" but it fails. Its director has so much to give, and I expect to watch his next film, because I think he has potential.So why do I give it a 6/10 when it's pure garbage? Mainly because of the acting, which is great, specially Diego Luna. I also kind of liked cinematography and film editing. And yet, the screenplay is awful, full of corny lines, pretentious and empty, vacuum. What did it tried to tell us?You never get to know many things, like motivations. It tries so hard to give a message that it gets lost trying, it loses strength. Another treatment of the same story might resulted in a masterpiece, since its main theme (loneliness and the search for one self) is a great issue. Plus, it is full of unjustified nudity and sex, (***Spoiler***) like scene with Diego Luna and Camila Sodi when all of sudden she begin to undress, I mean, the woman is gorgeous but what was the point of that scene? Finally, I must accept I prefer this film over some other Mexican films, it might worth watching, but I wouldn't recommend it.

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

Guillermo Arriaga, writer of Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, returns to Mexico to deliver what can easily be called the biggest disaster in Mexican cinema in years, The Night Buffalo, with Diego Luna in the leading role and a plot involving a schizophrenic man (Gabriel Gonzalez), who commits suicide after his girlfriend (Liz Gallardo) cheats on him with his best friend (Luna).The Night Buffalo, a very promising film, supposedly going to give new light to Mexican cinema fails to impress and even throws our country back a few steps with its awfulness. After the vomit inducing, yet inexplicable box office success KM 31, I was more than ready to experience an upgrade in film-making, what I got was a major letdown, a pointless awkward "drama" filled with unnecessary sex and nudity that was surprisingly close to become a porn flick.I don't understand Arriaga's screenplay... so, he actually wrote all the sex scenes? Wow, what a pervert. The whole film was completely pointless, if I wanted to see Diego Luna nude and screwing around with the whole cast, well there are better films where you can see that. It appears like the filmmakers made the film for the sole reason of watching everyone naked, the movie was about 2 hours long and one of them was sex. So yeah, there are artistic ways of showing nudity and some scripts need it, but this movie didn't need any, it had an interesting plot itself, but it didn't move an inch from the synopsis, nothing interesting ever happened in the film and even after the rushed and ridiculous ending, I was still waiting for something, ANYTHING, to make my time spent on the theater worth it.The movie was unfocused, what was it's objective? The main plot was misused, I was interested in the schizophrenic character, but instead of developing him, they show him naked! And apparently that's the answer to every single question in the film, as none of the characters gets any development, not that we care about what happens to them since they are all worth hating, but at least we expect something to occur. The Night Buffalo should have focused in its audience, their need for an interesting, thrilling, suspenseful story, or maybe just focus on the title's premise shall we? Nothing, we get some nonsense lines here and there, but nothing solid ever sees the light.Diego Luna's role was probably one of the characters I've most hated in all cinema history, how are we supposed to care for a character that betrayed his best friend sleeping with his girlfriend, and then betrayed her, sleeping with his best friend's sister, which is another blow towards his friend, who I can understand wants to kill himself being surrounded by such a disgusting bunch of people. Yuck, this was plain terrible, nothing to save from the film, everything felt awkward and unnecessary, boring as hell and one of the worst movies I've had the displeasure to see. Arriaga has just bought himself a ticket to Crapville, enjoy your stay.