Originally released in 1985, Gus Van Sant’s directorial debut
features the least conflicted homosexual protagonist in cinema
history. Based on Walt Curtis’s autobiographical novel of the same
name, Mala Noche follows a young Portland man’s sweetly
obsessive love for a teenage Mexican immigrant. Shot in tough black
and white, it’s ravishingly amoral, bracingly original, and back on the
screen in a new 35 mm print. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave,
329-2629. 7 and 9:15 pm, $8.50.)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...