Roberto Sosa Movies

A chance meeting between two middle-aged men leads one into a life of crime in this offbeat comedy. Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) is an American businessman whose life has been going through a sour patch after he and his wife, Carolyn (Hope Davis), lost their young son. During a business trip to Mexico City, Danny strikes up a conversation in a hotel bar with fellow out-of-towner Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan), and while Julian's loud and brassy manner initially puts Danny off, in time the two become friends, and Julian feels comfortable enough with Danny to tell him what he does for a living. It seems Julian is a hired killer working under the auspices of underworld kingpins Lovell (Dylan Baker) and Mr. Randy (Philip Baker Hall), and Julian tries to persuade Danny to help him with his latest assignment. Danny refuses, but a few months later a distraught Julian appears unannounced on Danny's doorstep. It seems Julian has blown his two most recent assignments due to a variety of psychosomatic illnesses, and now Lovell and Mr. Randy want him dead. Julian has also done something to put Danny in his debt, and the previously non-criminal businessman is forced to help his friend stage a hit, with Julian's presence in his home upsetting the precarious balance of Danny and Carolyn's marriage. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Adapted by writer/director Fernando Sariñana from the stories by Juan Madrid, Ciudades Oscuras (Dark Cities) tells a story of interwoven lives in the seedy underbelly of Mexico City. The several different story lines concern hooker Lola (Dolores Heredia); her drug addict son Fede (Diego Luna); her friend Zeze (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez); Zeze's daughter Susana (Jimena Ayala); and junkie Vicente (Roberto Sosa). Also on the scene are two corrupt cops (Alejandro Tommasi and Jesus Ochoa) and one good cop (Odiseo Bichir), while Chicken (Hector Suarez) and Casimiro (Alonso Echanove) each tell their separate stories to the same bartender (Demian Bichir). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

This second feature from writer-director Francisco Athie (Lolo) carries a stylish cyber-candescence throughout, courtesy of techno-twists added by production designer Chu Uroz (cables, surveillance cameras, TV monitors, and other electronic gear). Athie's tense politico-thriller begins with a trade-union chief's murder. His Brazilian mistress Claudia is framed, with bumbling Magana on as her defense lawyer and reporter Marco doing a journalistic investigation. As it becomes evident that both Magana and Marco are pawns and Claudia's innocent former lover is set up as the murderer, the web of intrigue expands. Shown at the 1998 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

The legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography ( or as director Arturo Ripstein puts it "an imaginary biography"). Lucha Reyes was an unconventional, and sexually liberated woman, most famous for her "cancion ranchera" style singing. Her story begins in 1939, where at 33 she still lived at home with her mother, Dona Victora, the madame of a renowned Mexico City whorehouse. Lucha marries the liberal Pedro Calderon and then buys a beggar's daughter. She becomes the mother to this child, Luzma. Lucha craves lasting love like junkies crave heroin. But for her loyal daughter, she never finds it and in the end no one can help her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this dialogue-free musical, events taking place at the Salon Panama are contrasted with those going on in an electronics warehouse nearby, where a group of Americans are stealing everything in sight. At the nigtclub, a series of music-hall type acts which frequently involve semi-nude chorus girls are put on to entertain a group of rowdy, low-class men.The nightclub barely slows down when the Americans arrive, rape one of the chorus girls, and camp out demanding that the acts continue. The story of this international production is based on an actual incident. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Those who enjoy religious allegories like Pilgrim's Progress will have an easier time with this carefully constructed drama than those looking simply for a straightforward story. In the movie, circus-born Alma is a performer at the Fantasia Circus. Her mother has left her, and she is having an affair with her father, who is ill. When he dies, she is pregnant by him, which everyone in the troupe can easily figure out. Shunned by her peers, she takes to the streets as a fire-eater and then joins up with a wandering marionette troupe, led by Refugio, a very strict woman who learns of Alma's situation and requires that she follow very careful guidelines in order to have any standing in her eyes. She works with the leader's puppeteer son Sacramento to put on complex performances of Old Testament stories. As in similar allegories, characters in the movie embody the essence of their names; Alma = soul, Refugio = refuge, Sacramento = sacrament. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Set entirely in the city residence of a of a notable, but not ruling-class family of Mexico, this drama explores what happened during a 1968 student uprising, which was brutally suppressed by the government. In the story, the family's two college-aged boys are ardent advocates of change. Despite the vigorous warnings of their parents, the boys have left to attend a street meeting. The family looks out onto the streets as the dramatic events of that time unfold. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This rambling film has no clear story but serves as a showcase for a number of popular musicians. Among those featured are El Tri, Rockrigo Gonzalez, and Celia Toussaint. The camera takes the viewer through the streets and nightlife of Mexico City, to rock concerts, and to bars and clubs. At one transvestite club, a queer-bashing is featured; another club is an "hoyos funquis," a place where the poorest kids come to drown their sorrows by sniffing glue, taking drugs, and getting smashed on ordinary booze. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

After discovering that his terrorist brother has committed suicide, Marco (John Savage) travels to Columbia to investigate, in this action film. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

While Salvador wasn't Oliver Stone's first film (a pair of offbeat horror stories preceded it), it defined his style of fiercely dramatic, politically oriented filmmaking, staked out his territory as one of the major directors of the 1980s and 1990s, and remains one of his strongest works to date. Veteran photojournalist Richard Boyle (James Woods) has been taking his camera to the world's trouble spots for over 20 years; while he does good work, Boyle's fondness for booze and drugs, and his colossal arrogance, have given him a reputation that's left him practically unemployable. Broke and with no immediate prospects, Boyle and his buddy Doctor Rock (Jim Belushi), an out-of-work disc jockey, head to El Salvador, where Boyle is convinced that he can scare up some lucrative freelance work amidst the nation's political turmoil. However, when Boyle and Rock witness the execution of a student by government troops just as they enter the country, it becomes clear that this war is more serious than they were expecting. Increasingly convinced that El Salvador is a disaster starting to happen, Boyle eventually decides that it's time to get out; but he has fallen in love with a woman named Maria (Elpidia Carrillo), and he doesn't want to leave her behind. James Woods gives one of his best performances as Boyle; and the passion of Stone's message, aided by the power of its truth (the film is based on actual events), propels the film forward. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi