Patricia Reyes Spindola Movies

Informed by a Chicago police detective that her sister Diane has recently gone missing in Tijuana, Mexico, successful lawyer Nadine Roberts (Poppy Montgomery) travels south of the border on a desperate mission to locate her lost sibling, and instead finds her sanity slipping amidst an unsetting series of strange circumstances. Immediately after learning that her sister has disappeared, Nadine informs her husband James (Adam Kaufman) that she will be leaving for Mexico, and will not return until she discovers what fate befell Diane. While Tijuana Detective Campos (Jose Yenque) is adamant that Nadine return home immediately and leave the search to the authorities, she outwardly rejects his advice -- instead choosing to navigate the labyrinthine streets with instinct as her only guide. Later, after waking in a strange hotel room, Nadine has a series of bizarre run-ins with such mysterious figures as idiosyncratic hotel clerk Victor (Danny Pino) and enigmatic Old Tijuana matriarch Mrs. Gonzalez (Patricia Reyes Spindola). Driven near the point of insanity due to the indecipherable language spoken by Victor and Mrs. Gonzalez, Nadine is momentarily snapped back to reality due to the surprise appearance of her husband James. But no one can be trusted when the only thing dividing dreams from reality is a single, spare thread, and now Nadine is about to discover what really lies in that mysterious zone between life and death. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's supernatural drama eXXXorcisms stars Alberto Estrella as a night watchman. Roberto (Estrella) is hired to guard a mall that is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young homosexual who killed himself after a disastrous relationship. Roberto was the other person in that relationship, and he spends the night facing his past. EXXXorcisms was screened at the Toronto Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

After being attached to a number of actors, directors, and producers, this long-gestating biography of one of Mexico's most prominent, iconoclastic painters reaches the screen under the guiding hand of producer/star Salma Hayek. Hayek ages some 30 years onscreen as she charts Frida Kahlo's life from feisty schoolgirl to Diego Rivera protégée to world-renowned artist in her own right. Frida details Kahlo's affluent upbringing in Mexico City, and her nurturing relationship with her traditional mother (Patricia Reyes Spindola) and philosophical father (Roger Rees). Having already suffered the crippling effects of polio, Kahlo sustains further injuries when a city bus accident nearly ends her life. But in her bed-ridden state, the young artist produces dozens upon dozens of pieces; when she recovers, she presents them to the legendary -- and legendarily temperamental -- Rivera (Alfred Molina), who takes her under his wing as an artist, a political revolutionary, and, inevitably, a lover. But their relationship is fraught with trouble, as the philandering Rivera traverses the globe painting murals, and Kahlo languishes in obscurity, longing to make her mark on her own. Frida was directed by Julie Taymor, whose Broadway production of The Lion King won her international acclaim. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Using digital video and a skeleton crew, master filmmaker Arturo Ripstein boldly reworks the ancient Greek drama Medea, employing a dizzying array of flashbacks and Brechtian devices. The film focuses on Julia (Arcelia Ramirez) who works as an homeopathic doctor. Lovelorn and embittered, she learns that her husband, a failed boxer named Nicolas, has dumped her in favor of a younger woman, Raquel (Francesca Guillen), the daughter of local slumlord La Marrana (Ernesto Yanez). To make matters worse, Nicolas wants to take the kids, while at the same time La Marrana evicts Julia from her modest abode. Julia's growing thirst for vengeance is furthered by her godmother who believes that all men should be castrated. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel of Gabriel Garcia Marquez by the same name, but set in the forties, the film is a reflection on life and its illusions by the Mexican master Arturo Ripstein. In a small coastal town in Mexico in the late 1940's, an obstinate colonel of the anticlerical Cristeros War keeps waiting for the pension that has been promised to him but never delivered. Every Friday, he goes down to the docks, dressed in his best suit in anticipation of the arrival of the letter announcing his pension. Everyone knows that he is waiting in vain, but he refuses to face reality, even though, deep in his heart, he knows that the letter will never arrive. His wife is suffering from asthma; their son Agustin was killed by the fascists; and the roof over their head will soon be taken away because of the unpaid mortgage. Yet the Colonel stands by his dream, refusing to give up despite poverty and hunger. He knows that if he lets go, there is nothing else left. His wife Lola proposes to sell the cock, which is the only thing left behind from their son. But the Colonel does not want to give up the fighting cock, which he believes will win one day. The story is rendered in a simple and straightforward narrative style unlike Ripstein's earlier work, which is more baroque, or Marquez's magical realist style. Repeated close-ups accentuate the damages of a long and hopeless wait on a person's inner strength. Veteran Fernando Lujan is remarkable as the Colonel, but Spanish Marisa Paredes shines as the wife who suffers in dignity. Salma Hayek has a brief appearance as the prostitute who had a relationship with Agustin. In competition at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

The Mexican telenova La Antorcha Encendida concerns a man and a woman from different ends of the socio economic ladder. Their love for each other persists through major cultural differences, as well as through a tumultuous war. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

This biographical drama illustrates scenes from the life of the Mexican author of many cherished romantic poems Manuel Acuña, who died by his own hand at the age of 24. While studying at the Academy of San Carlos, the young rake seduces his maid and then shuns her for the arms of another. However, his meeting with the lovely Rosario de la Peña marks a pivotal moment in his life; Rosario is flattered by the poems he publishes which are dedicated to her, but she steadfastly refuses his persistent (even obsessive) efforts to seduce her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This filmed biography explores the life of the Mexican artist Francisco Goitia (played by Jose Carlos Ruiz), whose internal struggle with what he perceived to be a conflict between art and religious faith worked itself out in his many paintings. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Mexican "Desarrollo de Investigacion para la Planeacion Familiar" or Diplaf, a state-funded family-planning agency, funded this cautionary drama, filmed in a somewhat avant-garde and experimental manner. In the story, a childless couple suffer endlessly, and their relationship deteriorates as they watch their friends and neighbors breeding prolifically. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While searching for his father Pedro Parama, a young boy discovers only horror. He comes to a deserted village and begins to unravel a story of love and despair. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide