Last night, for its final screening of the summer, the University of Chicago's Doc Films showed Gus Van Sant's debut film, Mala Noche, a 16mm black-and-white indie about a gay store clerk who falls for a Mexican drifter. Van Sant has gone on to direct films of all sorts, including indie experiments (Gerry, Last Days), mainstream Oscar fare (Good Will Hunting, Milk), and eccentric curios (To Die For, My Own Private Idaho), but none possess the sort of DIY immediacy of Mala Noche, which occasionally resembles neorealism in its synthesis of location, sociocultural characterization, and documentary aesthetics.…
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