Frankie DaVila Movies
It's Magnolia meets I Like it Like That, as writer-director Marisol Torres travels to Humboldt Park - Chicago's Puerto Rican quarter - for Chicago Boricua. Torres interweaves a myriad of ethnic inner-city tales - from the dope pusher infatuated with a college co-ed, to the prima donna with her sights set a little too high. By turns gripping, funny, and wildly sensual, Chicago Boricua offers a rare dramatization of everyday conflicts and struggles within the Puerto Rican community.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Leftist filmmaker Ken Loach directs this grim drama about the plight of seemingly invisible office cleaners in contemporary L.A. who often earn as little as $6 a day without benefits. The film opens as Maya (Pilar Padilla), a young Mexican lass, is reuniting with her older sister Rosa (Elpidia Carrilio) in L.A. after a harrowing cross-border journey. Rosa sets her sister up first with a job as a barmaid, which Maya soon quits after getting repeatedly groped -- and then as a janitor. When her boss demands one month's salary as "commission," Maya happens upon Sam Shapiro (Adrien Brody), a muckraking lawyer and union agitator. This film, which was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, is remarkable for its prescience -- it was shown a month after a massive janitor's strike ground L.A.'s business community to a halt. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, (more)
In this comedy, stockbroker Jon Aldrich (Tom Selleck) is the man who has it all, until his ill, aging parents (Don Ameche and Anne Jackson) move in with him. As his perfect life begins to disintegrate bit by bit, Jon becomes more and more depressed and disillusioned. Finally, broke and friendless, Jon begins to listen to his addled parents' insistence that he do away with them and use their insurance money to start again. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck, Don Ameche, (more)
Distinguished by a sharp, witty dialogue between its two cop protagonists, Ray and Danny (Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal), this entertaining crime drama is well worth a visit. Ray and Danny are nearly blown away by super bad guy Julio (Jimmy Smits), and their boss is peeved at them as usual. So the two are given a holiday from their beat in Chicago and travel to the sunny shores of Key West. They like it enough to retire from police work and open a business there. But when the duo returns to the Windy City, Julio is about to pull off a big drug deal and retirement may not be such a good idea. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Hines, Billy Crystal, (more)
