Latino movie news, reviews, trailers, and festival coverage

Chloe

‘Chloe,’ Atom Egoyan’s new directorial work, is the lesbian version of Fatal Attraction. You can expect a high level of nudity and explicit, erotic sexual lesbian scenes that almost make it feel like soft core porn. The look of the film is different though and resembles more Stanley Kubrick’s artistic ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ The pacing, cinematography and camerawork, even its musical score, ignites thoughts of the film. The acting is strong and the story, for 85% of its duration, is utterly enthralling… until it collapses at the very end in an hyperbolic mess.

A gynecologist (Juliane Moore) hires an escort (Amanda Seyfried) to seduce her husband (Liam Neeson), whom she suspects of cheating. The results will back fire on her and reveal a side of herself she didn’t know existed.

For most of the film, this erotic thriller carries a slow enjoyable pace. It never reaches the depths of boredom. Each scene is crafted carefully to develop the characters and the meat of the story. The situations they are all in are plausible, but with an edge to them. Then out of nowhere, 20 minutes before its denouement, it becomes risible and loses all cogency and believability. I don’t even want to try and figure out why that happened, but this movie could have been great.

Despite that one deficiency, the whole of the film should not be dismissed. The engrossing, sometimes transfixing artistic sensuality of the sequences will keep you glued to your seat. The premise evokes real questions that ultimately many marriages suffer from, such as – can one ever really be only with one person for their whole life?

‘Chloe’ has an answer for that and it’s not necessarily the one you want to hear. The movie is a bit twisted, but it is very entertaining, you can’t wait to see what happens next and am sure most of you will feel the same too.

The Fourth Kind

Rated: PG-13 for violent/disturbing images, some terror, thematic elements and brief sexuality.
Release Date: 2009-11-06
Starring: Olatunde Osunsanmi
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.thefourthkind.net/

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The Fourth Kind has many a scares, but it feels more like a made-for-tv movie than anything else. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes the decision to wait for it on DVD that much easier. 

 

The film, based on ‘real events’ and shot juxtaposing documentary and reenactment footage, is a good thrill… for a few minutes. The film’s publicity and marketing material suggest that The Fourth Kind is based on actual occurrences , but the reality is that this is as “based on a true story” as Fargo was (not at all). It’s all part of a backstory that extends beyond the screen. The director, Olantunde Osunsanmi, purports include “real” footage of unexplained phenomenon that transpired in Nome, Alaska during the early years of the 21st century, but there are plenty of clues both in the footage and outside of it that debunk its veracity. One doesn’t need to be aware that no one named Abbey Tyler practiced psychology in Alaska to know this woman is not real. The makeup applied to her face during her “interviews” is not convincing and the unidentified actress playing Abbey may cause pause even for those who want to buy what Osunsanmi is selling.

 

Although it’s fascinating to dissect the movie on an intellectual level and examine what pieces and structural choices work and don’t work, I’m sure that’s not how the filmmakers intended their production to be approached. On a purely narrative level, The Fourth Kind offers the occasional “boo!” moment but is too tame (consider the PG-13 rating) to generate any lasting horror and too contrived to work on a dramatic level. The best thing I can say about it is at least it’s not another Asian horror remake.

The Princess and the Frog

Rated: PG
Release Date: 2009-12-11
Starring: Ron Clements, Rob Edwards, Greg Erb, Don Hall, John Musker, Jason Oremland
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

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“The Princess and The Frog” is an historic moment for Disney, but it also represents a step forward in the entertainment industry to diversifying its films to reflect today’s current social landscape. Perhaps a long anticipated Latina on the horizon? Cinematically speaking, the film is an entertaining and amusing throwback to the classic Disney cartoons of old, but doesn’t really hold its own compared to the classics. The same formula is used with a twist, but its missing originality.

This animated romantic comedy set in the great city of New Orleans in the 1920’s features a beautiful girl named Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again, and a fateful kiss that leads them both on an adventure through the mystical bayous of Louisiana.

The voices are top notch across the board. The music is not at the height of previous efforts and feels like producers just picked up some songs from the Disney archive catalog. The production quality of the animation though is a pleasure to behold. In a time when CG, 3D and even stop-motion animation are all the rage, this seems like an old friend coming back to visit.

Kids and parents will have a good time with it and sing along with the crocs and bugs, but is it a classic? No, but it is historic enough that it must be seen.

Los Abrazos Rotos

Rated: R for sexual content, language and some drug material.
Release Date: 2009-11-20
Starring: Pedro Almodóvar
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Country:Spain
Official Website: http://www.pedroalmodovar.es/PAB_EN_Cap01.asp

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One of Spain’s most talented sons gives cinema a new work titled ‘Broken Embraces’. Pedro Almodóvar reunites with Penélope Cruz to once again give us a visually sensual and beautiful, bold and impressive theater of the mind, but one that regrettably doesn’t break new ground. It is not his best film and thus the reason it wasn’t selected to participate in Spain’s Oscar selections for this upcoming ceremony. It is by no intention a bad film, it simply isn’t overwhelming. Were we asking for too much? Was that the problem?

The premise is interesting and very Almodovar. Harry Caine (Lluís Homar), a screenwriter/director, suffers a near fatal crash that leaves him blind. After healing from his wounds 14 years later, he finds himself directing and editing his last movie which starred his eternal love.

There is beauty in his work, but I believe there was also writers block, which is why he recycled so much of his favorite films such as Elevator to the Gallows, Voyage to Italy and his own Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Pedro took the opportunity to become Tarantino in this film and craft a class in filmmaking to us all. His new work combines amour fou, crime-noir melodrama, satirical comedy, complex structures and subplots and anything else his head could devise. He’s good but his ambition got the best of him and the construction of the story ultimately did not rise to the levels of his previous works. It looks as if his focus left the narrative and shifted to the technical aspects and look of the film. Almodovar is accountable for his own success and it burns him here.

Nonetheless, the minor imperfections do not damage his reputation as a dexterous helmer nor should it influence your decision to see the movie. Penelope Cruz gives another mesmerizing performance as the “femme fatale” but one that doesn’t rival her character in passion and charm from ‘Volver’. The rest of the cast shows why Spain is a gold mine full of talented actors.

In a broad comment, this year was specifically a great year for Spanish movies. The box office has reaped the benefits of their marvelous stories and productions and we’re all the better for it. Almodovar is being challenged by other filmmakers such as Isabel Coixet, Fernando Trueba, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and Alejandro Aménabar (half Chilean). I hope to see their work rival his because Hollywood awaits them desperately.