Frida Torresblanco Movies
- 2008
Noted director Alfonso Cuaron's son Jonas helmed this drama, which embodies one of the most unusual features to emerge on the international scene in quite some time. An experimental work overtly influenced by Chris Marker's La jetée, it relies exclusively on a series of still photographs to establish its narrative trajectory, and thus avoids the moving image altogether. As the work opens, a title reads, "From 2004-5 I took photos of everything around me. At the end of that year, I ordered the images in such a way that they suggested the following narrative to me." Strategically building on this idea, the film then uses snapshots to weave the tale of an on-again, off-again cross-cultural romance between an American college student named Molly (Eireann Harper) and a 14-year-old Mexican boy called Diego (Diego Cataño). As the tale opens, Molly is spending the summer in Mexico City and taking a class at a language school, while on the rebound from a recent relationship. When she goes sightseeing with her friend Katie (Katie Hegarty), her path soon intersects with that of Diego, a young man who harbors an obsessive interest in his female cousin. He's also extremely concerned about his terminally grandfather (Salvador Elizondo). The two adolescents sense an immediate connection, strong enough that when Molly returns home and lapses into an affair with a professor; she cannot quite forget Diego. Thousands of miles separate the couple, but two possibilities for a reunion linger - Molly's intention to return to Mexico City and Diego's plan to visit Molly in the Big Apple. Both experiences will provide unforgettable memories - but will the relationship survive the ravages of time and distance? ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eireann Harper, Diego Cataño, (more)
Carlos Cuarón, who co-wrote the script for his brother Alfonso Cuarón's breakthrough hit, Y Tu Mamá También, makes his feature directorial debut with Rudo y Cursi. The film also reunites the stars of the earlier film, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, and is the first release from the production company Alfonso started with Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, Cha Cha Chá. Rudo y Cursi depicts the changing relationship between two brothers who become soccer stars. Beto (Luna), the goaltender, is nicknamed "Rudo" because of his hard-nosed style of play, while Tato (Bernal), a forward, gets the nickname "Cursi" for his flamboyant goal celebrations and his flashy lifestyle. They both start out picking bananas in remote Tlachatlán, where they share a devotion to their mother. Then Batuta (Argentinean comic Guillermo Francella), a charmingly shiftless professional scout, happens by. He can only sign one of the brothers, so they battle it out on the pitch to see who gets his break. Instead of throwing the match to his brother as plan, Tato scores a goal and is on his way to stardom. He's more interested in becoming a pop star than a soccer star, but when he meets Maya (Jessica Mas), a famous TV hostess he's dreamed about for years, he begins to enjoy the trappings of fame. Meanwhile, resentful Beto waits for his chance. When he finally gets his break, he leaves his disapproving wife, Toña (Adriana Paz), and his kids to sneak off to Mexico City. The brothers' fortunes rise and fall, with Tato distracted by a demanding girlfriend and a hopeless singing career, while Beto deals with marital strife and a serious gambling problem. Rudo y Cursi had its New York Premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, (more)
- 2007
The first directorial effort by Alfonso Cuaron's son Jonas Cuaron, Year of the Nail concerns a teenage boy who thinks of nothing but sex. The film chronicles his attempts to seduce a young woman who finds herself traveling through Mexico. Cuaron utilizes a series of still images rather than conventional moving pictures to tale the story. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diego Cataño, Eireann Harper, (more)
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro returns to the phantasmagorical cinema that defined such early fare as Cronos and The Devil's Backbone with this haunting fantasy-drama set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and detailing the strange journeys of an imaginative young girl who may be the mythical princess of an underground kingdom. Her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), recently remarried to sadistic army captain Vidal (Sergi López) and soon to bear the cruel military man's child, shy young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is forced to entertain herself as her recently-formed family settles into their new home nestled deep in the Spanish countryside. As Ofelia's bed-ridden mother lies immobilized in anticipation of her forthcoming child and her high-ranking stepfather remains determined to fulfill the orders of General Francisco Franco to crush a nearby guerilla uprising, the young girl soon ventures into an elaborate stone labyrinth presided over by the mythical faun Pan (Doug Jones). Convinced by Pan that she is the lost princess of legend and that in order to return to her underground home she must complete a trio of life-threatening tasks, Ofelia sets out to reclaim her kingdom and return to her grieving father as Vidal's housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) and doctor (Alex Angulo) plot secretly on the surface to keep the revolution alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ariadna Gil, Ivana Baquero, (more)
- 2005
In 1978 New York artist and filmmaker Hugues de Montalembert's world went black. Viciously assaulted by two men who had broken into his apartment looking for money, de Montalembert's vision was forever darkened when one of the thieves threw a vial of paint thinner in his face. In the painful days that followed, de Montalembert's brain refused to accept his fate, processing powerful images that would motivate him to take control of his fate and overcome his handicap. In this film from director Gary Tarn, de Montalembert tells his tale of loss, anger, and hope in his own terms. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugues de Montalembert
A man with a secret forms an uneasy alliance with an opportunistic reporter in this drama from Mexico. Manolo Bonilla (John Leguizamo) is a broadcast journalist for a Latin-American tabloid television series who has been sent to Ecuador to cover the funeral services of three children who fell victim to a mass murderer known as "the Monster of Babahoyo." Shortly after Bonilla finishes interviewing a young mourner, the child is struck by a car driven by Vinicio Cepeda (Damián Alcázar), a traveling salesman who pedals bibles. The crowd assembled to pay their respects flies into a rage, pulling Cepeda from his car and nearly killing him. Bonilla's intervention ends up saving Cepeda's life, but the reporter is ashamed to admit that he and his cameraman didn't break through the crowd to save the driver, but in hopes of getting a better shot of those beating him. Cepeda is jailed for manslaughter, and when Bonilla visits him behind bars, he shares some unexpected news with the reporter -- he claims to know the identity of "the Monster of Babahoyo," and also knows where the killer has buried other victims. Cepeda is willing to share this information if Bonilla can help get him out of jail, but instead of handing the information to the police, Bonilla decides to investigate himself, certain that another scoop on the case will boost his ratings and his career. Crónicas was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" series at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Leguizamo, Leonor Watling, (more)
- 2004
- R
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The true story of a man who, on February 22, 1974, was thwarted from an ambitious plan for political assassination provides the basis for this striking psychological drama. Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a salesman for an office-supply company whose life is slowly beginning to unravel. Bicke's job is going nowhere, his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), has left him, and his boss (Jack Thompson) keeps pushing self-help books on him that make a mockery of his state of mind. One of Bicke's few friends is Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle), an auto mechanic, and together they come up with an idea for a tire shop on wheels; while neither has the money to finance the project, Bicke has learned of a program for small-business loans instituted by President Richard Nixon, which he's certain will come through for him. But Bicke is denied his loan, which dovetails with his increasing suspicion of the president's Vietnam policies and a sudden interest in the "by any means necessary" political activism of the Black Panther Party. Desperate to seem important in some way, Bicke becomes increasingly obsessed with the duplicity of Richard Nixon, until he chooses to take it upon himself to stop the president once and for all. The Assassination of Richard Nixon was the first feature film from director Niels Mueller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, (more)
This Spanish documentary film is like many detective stories in which the manner of the search itself is far more involving than any answers it reveals. Here, the filmmakers comb the world to try to discern how Ramon Mercader came to be the murderer of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in 1940. Trotsky (1879-1940) was one of the original Bolshevik revolutionaries with Lenin in Russia and was a leading writer and theorist of that revolution. He served as that government's Commissar of War for six years. Trotsky had a falling-out with Lenin and was exiled in 1929. During his exile, he lived in Mexico City and continued writing. He was considered one of the main "heretics" of Russian Bolshevik Marxism, and was continually and loudly denounced by the Russian government. After bragging to friends that he would do so, Ramon Mercader stabbed Trotsky in the head with an ice pick. Mercader, who spent much of the rest of his life in prison, never revealed the planning behind his deed. On release from prison, he chose to live in Castro's Cuba, and he is believed to be buried in the Kremlin. The filmmakers traveled the world and interviewed over four dozen people in their gripping quest for answers. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
