Overlapping the artist's biography and his work, writer-director Leon Ichaso pointedly reflects the chaos in his subject's shortish life, but he links the artist's frustrations and talent in the usual manner: as cause and effect.
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Piñero
Overview
"Piñero" tells the story of the explosive life of a Latino icon, the gay poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero, whose urban poetry is recognized as a pre-cursor to rap and hip-hop. After doing time in hard-core Sing-Sing for petty thefts and drug dealing, Piñero's prison experiences developed into the 1974 Tony-nominated play Short Eyes. The resulting notoriety and fame was too much for the Latino bad-boy genius who retreated to the darker corners of New York City.
Director and cast
- Leon Ichaso Director
- Benjamin Bratt as Miguel Piñero
- Giancarlo Esposito as Miguel Algarin
- Talisa Soto as Sugar
- Nelson Vasquez as Tito Goya
- Panchito Gómez as Acting Inmate
- Michael Wright as Edgar Bowser
- Michael Irby as Reinaldo Povod
- Rita Moreno as Miguel's Mother
- Jaime Sánchez as Miguel's Father
- Rome Neal as Jake
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A scattershot stab at a fascinating life and times.
Flashily but irritatingly shot, full of unmotivated switches from colour to b/w, sudden flashbacks, mannered slow mo and jump cuts, this is hardly a subtle evocation of its subject's life.
A vivid rendering of the complexities of the artist's soul, and a notable attempt to convey the trajectory of a volatile creative life.
Bratt's performance is as steady and consistent as the film is frustrating.
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