'Mala Noche' offers grainy insights into Van Sant

Right now the Brattle is hosting a tribute to Gus Van Sant . The theater freely admits that the series is "by no means comprehensive" (it's a mini-tribute), but it is well programmed, the centerpiece being a reissued print of Van Sant's first feature, "Mala Noche." Shot in grainy black-and-white 16mm for $25,000 when Van Sant was 33, the 1985 film was a transporting do-it-yourself, proto-slacker daydream. It still is, actually.

Things happen in "Mala Noche" but not all of them are consequential. Almost narcoleptically, the film seems to black in and out of scenes, out of sequences, out of shots. It has an intoxicating effect. The blinking approach to storytelling might even be ironic for a movie about a minor obsession: A lovelorn liquor store clerk named Walt (Tim Streeter ) falls for Johnny (Doug Cooeyate ), who recently drifted into Portland from Mexico with his buddy Roberto (Ray Monge ).

Walt fixes himself on Johnny, but the affection is unrequited. And after all these years, Walt's attraction to Johnny still has a racial tinge. But Van Sant is shrewd to make Johnny and Roberto reasonably dynamic individuals as opposed to Caucasian fetishes. He demonstrates an unexpectedly keen and conscientious eye for class among the déclassé. Walt is aware that he's comparatively solvent. And part of Johnny considers exploiting that.

"Mala Noche" didn't exactly put Van Sant on the map. Or anywhere near it, necessarily. "Drugstore Cowboy, " which came four years later, provided the landmark, opening in some American cities before "Mala Noche." But this is the first, smallest, and most essential planet in the Van Sant solar system. The seediness of "Drugstore Cowboy " started here. So did the one-way crushes in "My Own Private Idaho " and the gorgeously epic longueurs of "Last Days. "

Of all Van Sant's movies, "Mala Noche" is the rawest, most personal, and least freighted. Playing at the Brattle for a week, it's the one fans should see for the simplest inkling into Van Sant's complex artistic roots.

Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com. For more on movies, go to boston.com/ae/ movies/blog.