The only thing tougher than his fiction were the facts of his life.
Miguel Piñero was a New York city poet and playwright who wrote what he knew: a world of "stabbing, shooting and dying". This gritty, non-linear biographical film presents Piñero's dark charisma and even darker life in all its angry glory. A junkie, a drug dealer, and a thief, Piñero (Benjamin Bratt) spent time in Sing-Sing prison, an experience which was the basis of his most famous play, Short eyes, which won the Tony Award in 1974. Piñero also pioneered the spoken-word poetry (the forbearer to rap and hip-hop) of the Nuyorican Poets Café, which he helped found.
There were a number of people in Piñero's life who recognised his genius and tried to save him from self-destruction: his mother (Rita Moreno), theatre impresario Joseph Papp (Mandy Patinkin), and his long-time girlfriend Sugar (Talisa Soto). But the allure of crime and drugs won him over and Piñero finally crashed and burned, dying young in 1988. This film is a passionate tribute to a passionate artist who remains an important Puerto Rican-American icon.
Special Agent Matti
*
MA 15+ (Drug use, adult themes, medium level sex scenes)
105 minutes (1:45 hours)
Film: 25 July 2002
DVD rental: 10 November 2004
VHS rental: 10 November 2004
DVD retail: 16 March 2005
