Constance Marie Movies
Constance Marie floored audiences with her performance as Selena's mother in Selena (1997), the biographical drama about the pop artist's rise and the tragic ending of her life. Through extensive makeup preparation, Marie was transformed to look substantially older than her on-screen daughter, played by Jennifer Lopez -- the actual age difference between the two actresses was merely one year. Marie's emotional portrayal in the role left no doubt of her maturity as a performer, with or without the makeup.Born September 9, 1969, in Hollywood, CA, Marie's first role was playing Penny in the film spin-off series Dirty Dancing. In 1995, she starred in the Newline feature My Family, as Toni Sanchez, earning her substantial credit in the field. Her role in Selena two years later solidified her impression as a performer, and would veer her career toward dramatic roles both on television and in films.
Marie had several roles on TV series, including one recurring on the NBC series Union Square in 1997. Additionally, her film credits continued to grow, mainly in the vein of drama. In 2000, she was featured in the Sundance Film Festival feature Dancing in September. She appeared in See Spot Run and as Yolanda in Tortilla Soup a year later. After a few years without much emphasis on her television career, she returned to the tube, appearing simultaneously on two different networks. She starred as Angie, the wife of standup comic George Lopez, in the 2002 ABC sitcom The George Lopez Show, and as Nina in the critically acclaimed PBS dramatic series American Family of the same year. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide
Sequel to the 1970 Chesty Anderson sex comedy by the same director, this lame story with jokes to match focuses on the aptly-named Chesty (Shari Eubank), still a WAVE in the U.S. Navy, but now she is after the Mafioso who killed her younger sister. Chesty's allies are three of her similarly-proportioned friends in the Navy, and her enemies are the Baron (Frank Campanella) and his pal Vincent (Timothy Agoglia Carey) -- Vincent carries the show with his invented, eccentric way of walking and the pseudo-Italian he spouts at a moment's notice. Meant to be a conveyance for stunts and gags, and a showcase for the women, this film does introduce a government agent (Fred Willard) who ultimately pays more attention to the resolution of the plot than anyone else around. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shari Eubank, Dorri Thompson, (more)
Based on a story by Richard Lupoff (a short filmization of the same story earned an Oscar nomination for 1990), 12:01 centers on a member of the personnel department in a science lab, who discovers that the world has become somehow trapped in a strange time warp that causes the same 24-hour period to repeat itself. During the course of that endlessly repeated day, Barry Thomas, the only one who seems to be aware of what's happening, must somehow figure out how to put time back on its normal course and solve the murder of a physicist, Lisa Fredricks (Helen Slater) with whom he is infatuated. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Featuring Jennifer Lopez in her first major big-screen role, Gregory Nava's My Family traces three generations of the Sanchez's, a Mexican-American family living in East Los Angeles. Beginning in the 1930s, the film outlines the struggles faced by Jose (Jacob Vargas) and Maria (Lopez) as a recently immigrated married couple raising a family. As Jose and Maria age, the focus shifts to their son, Jimmy (Jimmy Smits), as he starts his own family in the 1960s. While Lopez' role was uncredited, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance. My Family has also been released under the titles My Family, Mi Familia, Cafe Con Leche, and East L.A. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Selena Quintanilla was a major figure in Tejano music, a Grammy-winning recording artist, a beloved star in the American Southwest and Mexico, and seemed poised to cross over into mainstream popularity on the U.S. pop charts when she was murdered on March 31, 1995 by the president of her fan club. Written and directed by Gregory Nava, this biopic concentrates on Selena's relationship with her family and her rise to fame, dealing only briefly with her tragic death. Abraham Quintanilla (Edward James Olmos) is a veteran musician who leads a family-based singing group, The Dinos. At a young age, he notices that his daughter Selena (played as a child by Becky Lee Meza) has a strong singing voice, and he works her into the act (her big number is a version of Over the Rainbow). However, as she grows older, Selena (played as an adult by Jennifer Lopez) wants to establish her own musical identity; while her heritage is Mexican-American, her primary language is English, and her favorite artists are American pop acts like Donna Summer. While Selena and Abraham sometimes argue about the musical direction of the group, he always respects and supports her talent, and her blend of Tejano roots music and danceable pop rhythms soon sparks a revolution in Latin music. Selena later earns the wrath of her father when she becomes romantically involved with Chris Perez (Jon Seda), a rebellious and long-haired guitarist hired to play with the group, but when they elope and Selena convinces Abraham that their love is sincere, Chris is welcomed into the family. After a long string of successes on the Latin charts and playing to a sellout crowd at the Houston Astrodome and a crowd of 100,000 at a stadium in Monterey, Mexico, Selena begins recording her first album in English, which is expected to make her a mainstream star on the level of Whitney Houston or Gloria Estefan. However, the fates decreed it was an album she would never complete. Selena was produced with the participation of the Quintanilla Family (Abraham was executive producer), and Selena's own recordings were used on the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Lopez, Rebecca Lee Meza, (more)
Scott Glenn, Randall Batinkoff, and Constance Marie star in this crime thriller. A cop makes his way to Miami in the wake of the attempted murder of a judge when he learns that the killing was set up by a key player in the violent world of drug smuggling -- and several DEA agents are his next targets. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Randall Batinkoff, (more)
Reggie Rock Bythewood makes his directorial debut with this sharp comedy-drama about love, compromise, and TV. The film opens with the parallel childhoods of Tomasina "Tommy" Crawford (Nicole Ari Parker) and George Washington (Isaiah Washington). Both were utterly shaped by television -- watching Roots was one of the few times that Tommy's parents stopped fighting long enough to sit on the couch together, while George was traumatized by being banned from TV for a month after swiping some church donation cash. As adults, George is a programming executive at the WPX network where fledgling writer Tommy tries to pitch shows. On the strength of both her passion for her craft and her striking good looks, George decides to champion her show called "Just Us," a serio-comedy about a juvenile offender adopted by a judge. They shoot the pilot, the network greenlights the project, and eventually they fall in love. Even though Tommy longs to present her characters in an uncompromised, unvarnished manner, pressure from network execs and advertisers forces her to water down the plot. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Ari Parker, James Avery, (more)
Beyond the fact that it was seen on PBS, the dramatic series American Family bore no relation to the classic docudrama series of the 1970s. Created by filmmaker Gregory Nava, the series focused on a "typical" Latino family in East L.A., and as such was the only program on "regular" TV to feature an almost exclusively Latino cast. Edward James Olmos starred as patriarch Jess Gonzalez, a Korean war veteran, barber, and staunch conservative. Jess often found himself at ideological war with his daughter Nina (Constance Marie), a feminist attorney who'd returned to the family home in the wake of a personal tragedy. Also on hand was Jess' semi-estranged wife Berta (Sonia Braga); his older son Esteban (Esai Morales), a recent prison parolee who struggled to maintain custody of his own son Pablito (Austin Noah Marques); younger offspring Cisco, who incessantly videotaped his family and posted his handiwork on his own website; and the family's zany Aunt Dora (Raquel Welch), who, perhaps inevitably, lived next door. According to Gregory Nava, the series' dramatic thrust was that the Gonzalezes were "trying to deal with their identity -- who they are, where they came from, and where they are now." American Family began its 12-episode run on January 23, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward James Olmos, Raquel Welch, (more)
A remake of Ang Lee's family comedy Eat Drink Man Woman, Maria Ripoli's Hispanic-American ensemble feature set in Southern California about a veteran chef named Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo), who is slowly losing his sense of taste. He has three daughters, all of whom have chosen different paths. There is Letitia (Elizabeth Pena), the oldest and most repressed of the bunch, a rigid schoolteacher who is a member of the Christian faith. His youngest, Maribel (Tamara Mello), is the most assured, though plagued by doubts. His middle daughter Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) is most like him and shares his taste for cooking, but has chosen a career as a corporate consultant, which makes for a more secure lifestyle. She is offered a high-profile job in Barcelona, which causes a rift in the family setting. Maribel soon finds herself drawn to a handsome Brazilian student (Nikolai Kinski), and Letitia is gaining affection for Orlando (Paul Rodriguez), an awkward ballplayer whom her students have sent mistaken love letters to without her knowing. Also at their dinners are a shy single mother (Constance Marie) and her obnoxious mother (Raquel Welch), who has her sights set on Martin's affections. Tortilla Soup is Maria Ripoli's second major feature, after her whimsical 1998 feature Twice Upon a Yesterday. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hector Elizondo, Jacqueline Obradors, (more)
Two hapless stoners who have grown tired rehab become willingly locked into a dangerous scheme to rip off the city's most feared criminal kingpin in this smoked-out comedy starring Danny Masterson and Mekhi Phifer, and rolled in the red-eyed tradition of such Cheech and Chong classics as Up in Smoke. In the world of pot-heads Larry (Masterson) and Rico (Ronnie Warner), the name Mr. Big is a name to be both feared and respected. Thrills are hard to come by these days though, and when Larry and Rico decide to ditch rehab for a shot at the big time, they quickly discover that you don't get a big reputation without playing a big game. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
