01.27.2023 | By Jack Rico |
As the dust settles on the 95th Annual Academy Award nominations, I had a chance to visit my friends at PIX11 News, Marysol Castro and Chris Cimino, to break it down. One thing is clear: the sci-fi epic, Everything Everywhere All at Once, is the film to beat. With a whopping 11 nominations, it has more than any other film this year. Top Gun received 7 nominations, but Tom Cruise was snubbed… again.
12.2.2021 | By Jack Rico |
As film critics prepare to vote for their best movies of 2021, Hispanic critics, in particular, have been anticipating the long-awaited retelling of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Not just because it is a Spielberg-event film, but mainly because of the cultural weight the movie carries. Read More
04.22.2021 | By SBC Staff |
‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided To Go For It,’ which made its world premiere at this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival, has an official trailer for its anticipated commercial debut. Read More
11.10.2018 | By Jack Rico |
In the latest episode of Highly Relevant with Jack Rico, Basil Tsiokas, the program director of DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, joins us to speak about this year’s LatinX documentaries and why so many LatinX stories are starting to be made (1:06). And if you’re going to the movies, film and culture critic Mike Sargent talks to me about two new releases – Hugh Jackman’s political drama The Frontrunner and the WW2 horror-action film Overlord (16:09). Read More
07.16.2018 | By Jack Rico |
‘This Week In Movies’ we take a look at the new Hollywood releases and focus on one of America’s greatest actors – Denzel Washington. Though his film Equalizer 2 is not a prestige film, if it’s anything like the original, it should be fun. Another great American actor releasing a film is Meryl Streep. Her Mamma Mia sequel should target women and those looking for romantic stories to reinforce their belief in everlasting love. Finally, former Broadway Hamilton actor Daveed Diggs makes an Oakland film that should be talked about after you leave the theater. Enjoy the trailers and remember to listen to our podcast this Friday for our review of movies and interviews with filmmakers and other notable figures of American pop culture. Read More
04.29.2018 | By Jack Rico |
Comedian Eugenio Derbez stops by the show to discuss his new movie “Overboard,” but we really talk about his struggles of becoming a star in an industry that has not fully embraced his culture, his accent, or his stories. We unspool why he’s making English-language movies now after a successful career in Spanish, how he overcame the sellout stigma from Mexican peers and why he believes Hollywood is afraid of creating Latino movie stars. Read More
04.20.2018 | By Jack Rico |
Adrian Martinez and Allison Strong join the show today to chat about going at it in Hollywood as Latinx actors. Adrian is in Amy Schumer’s controversial new film “I Feel Pretty,” out in theaters now. We talked why the movie’s premise has angered some women, if he thinks “beauty” is a fact or an opinion, and his #1 advice for any Latinx actor wanting to break into the business. Allison is a proud Colombian-American actress who has a new movie “The Week Of” coming out on Netflix April 27thwith Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, plus, she discusses her personal experiences of what acting in Hollywood is like for a bilingual actress; and she reveals the best lesson she learned from Steve Buschemi. Read More
04.7.2018 | By Jack Rico |
On episode 71 of Highly Relevant, Ben Lopez, Executive Director of NALIP joins us to discuss the rock-bottom depths Hispanic actors have reached in Hollywood. What is the African-American community doing differently than the Hispanic community? Also, Randy Falco, the CEO of Univision, recently announced he’s retiring early. What type of person should replace him? Is it time for a U.S. born Hispanic to run it and should it be a woman? Should they look into doing English-language programming? And we also chat about how NALIP’s whole mission is to help Hispanic creatives break into Hollywood.
12.31.2016 | By Jack Rico |
Christmas is here and instead of repeating a show, why not give you an original episode based upon 3 marvelous films. Joining me to discuss them is Mike Sargeant from WBAI and seen on FOX News and Lisa Rosman from NY1. The movies are La La Land (3:14), Moonlight (7:15) and Arrival (17:55). We also chat a bit about Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Birth of a Nation and diversity in Hollywood. Read More
02.24.2016 | By Jack Rico |
With the academy awards coming up, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver tackles Hollywood whitewashing in a humorous yet unflinching way. The focus of the video is self-explanatory, but this whole idea that there aren’t enough good roles for people of color is utter balderdash. Even when roles do exist, they still can be played by white actors. Just ask Emma Stone. Her portrayal of a half-Asian woman in Aloha is perhaps the most egregious act of whitewashing in the modern era. Read More
