Luis Felipe Tovar Movies

The thriller Ciudad Juarez: Tan Infinito Como el Desierto concerns a Mexican reporter named Erika who is on the verge of being offered the chance to work in New York City. When Erika's nanny's daughter moves to the town of Ciudad Juárez and disappears, Erika decides to investigate. She soon discovers a history of missing women, and slowly begins to unravel the horrific circumstances concerning the people responsible. With the offer of a big break on the table, Erika must decide if she will see through this dangerous investigation. This film is loosely based on an actual incident. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this modern take on the biblical flooding of the planet, the longing citizens of Mexico City seek solace in friendship and love against the backdrop of the never-ending struggle between good and evil. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When a captured drug trafficker has the young daughter of the judge presiding over his trial kidnapped, it's up to a retired police officer to get back on the streets and bring the men responsible for carrying out the crime to justice in this south of the border thriller starring Alexis Ayala, Betty Monroe, and Jorge Vargas. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Malena Roncayolo's Acosada En Lunes De Carnival stars Luis Felipe Tovar as the head of a small village called San George. He falls into a mutually self-destructive relationship with a local worker's wife (Mimi Lazo). She rebuffs his constat efforts to seduce her, but her resistance crumbles due to her desire for him. This situation comes to a head during Carnival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A young man takes a wrong turn down the lost highway of criminal delinquency in this powerful drama from Mexico. Rufino (Luis Fernando Pena) is a boy in his early teens growing up on the mean streets of Mexico City; his father is missing, and he's being raised by an adoptive mother who has little time for him. Instead, Rufino runs with a gang of youthful delinquents who support themselves with petty crime and seek solace in marijuana and sniffing glue, and while the boy is still an innocent deep inside, his circumstances have left him jaded beyond his years. When his guardian's boyfriend beings home a bag of cocaine one night, Rufino steals the drugs and tries to sell them, hoping to use the money to run away with his girlfriend Xochitl (Maya Zapata) who, even though she's not much older than Rufino, is already the mother of a child. As Rufino and Xochitl search for a better life, he also tries to learn what became of his father; Rufino is convinced he's still alive, even though nearly everyone else is certain he's dead. Luis Fernando Pena's performance in De La Calle earned the young thespian the Best Actor trophy at the 2001 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Arturo Ripstein's black comedy takes its title from a Mexican song about women as the downfall of men. Partitioned into four long scenes, the first sees a badly executed murder in which two killers ambush their victim, stone him to death, and use his wheelbarrow to tow away the body. The film then shifts its location to a crumbling police station where the wives of the bigamous murder victim have come to detail their grievances against their departed husband, and also to lay claim to his body. Eventually a coin is flipped to determine who will get the corpse, but the winner (Patricia Reyes Spindola, a Ripstein regular) starts to feel suckered by the other wives once funeral costs pile up. After a good deal of ranting to her oblivious, Nintendo-fixated daughter, the widow unwittingly enlists the help of one of the killers to transport her husband's body home. En route, she realizes the killer is wearing her husband's boots and duly attacks him with a baseball bat, taking back the boots and forcing the shoeless murderer to suck her toes in penance as her daughter looks on in disgust. The film then flashes back to the two days preceding the murder, when the dead man played on a losing baseball team with his killers; thus is revealed the true reason for his murder. La Perdicion de Los Hombres premiered at the 2000 San Sebastian Film Festival, where it won the festival's Golden Shell for "Best Film." ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Santitos is a character-driven comedy about a young Mexican woman who has to come to terms with the loss of her teenage daughter. Esperanza's daughter Blanca suddenly and mysteriously dies in the hospital where she was having her tonsils removed. Shortly afterward, the vision of a saint appears on the greasy glass door of the oven, telling Esperanza that Blanca is not dead. Despite warnings from her best friend and the local priest, she embarks on an incredible journey across the country and over the border that helps her shed her inhibitions one by one. Out comes a different Esperanza, a liberated independent woman who is also sexually uninhibited. Santitos was screened as part of the Filmmakers of the Present section of the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

A author preparing to pen her masterwork returns to her small Mexican town in search of inspiration, only to discover just how her secret-shrouded past has molded her into the woman she became in this Spanish-language drama from director Oscar Blancarte. Minerva (Angelica Aragon) has achieved great fame thanks to talented abilities as a writer, but upon stumbling into a series of facts that would have changed her life considerably had she been aware of them as a young child, she soon finds herself questioning everything, and everyone, she ever knew. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This Mexican drama is a faithful adaptation of Nobel-laureate Naguib Mahfouz's novel, only it is set in contemporary Mexico City instead of 1940s Cairo. The film is comprised of three overlapping "chapters" that come together in the fourth chapter. Each segment, centering on a different character, takes place at the same time in a rundown neighborhood. The disparate characters all have one thing in common--none of them get what they want. Chava, the son of tavern-owner Rutilio, wants to go to the US. The fiercely independent and beautiful Alma is thinking about marrying a wealthy shop keeper. The impoverished young barber Abel is in love with Alma. Then there is the spinster Susanita who owns an apartment house and spends her spare time involved in unhealthy love affairs. After killing his father's mistress in a fit of moral outrage, Chava ends up on the lam for two years. Abel takes off for a long time and Alma ends up becoming a drug-addicted prostitute whom Abel cannot save. Susanita gets married to young Guicho and learns that he is robbing her. She is just about to toss him out when she discovers that her really loves her after all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This interesting bilingual comedy chronicles the effects of AIDS on a marriage. Maria and Jose are married. Trouble ensues when Jose strays with a tall, seductive blonde while he is at a conference. Throughout the opening scenes it is apparent that this is a low budget film. The English is appalling, and the boom mike keeps appearing during the scenes. Just as Jose begins making love to the blond, a man is seen watching a monitor. Another man appears and tries to pull away the sheet covering the lovers. He succeeds and the irate blond wraps the sheet around her and stalks out. Fortunately, the makeup girl is not as modest and assumes the blonde's role. The director is greatly relieved. The filming continues as Jose makes love to the adulteress. Afterward, he wakes up to find "Welcome to the world of AIDS" luridly scrawled across the mirror. Thus begins the two plotlines. On one hand, the film parodies the budding Mexican film industry. On the other, it presents a semi-serious story about AIDS, a disease that is infecting more married women in Mexico than anyone else. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A lonely, aging postal worker finds himself the victim of a cruel practical joke in this pessimistic Mexican drama. The trouble begins when crotchety postman Andre begins complaining about his young neighbor Marianna's propensity for playing loud music every time she entertains a lover. To get back at him, Marianna begins sending him anonymous love letters. The old man is intrigued by the mysterious letters and hires a cheap detective to find their author. The detective is convinced the perpetrator is Teresita, a veteran hooker who joins in on the scheme to earn a little extra cash. Andre's friend and colleague tries to warn Andre that it is all a game, but his friend is in love and will not listen. Meanwhile, Marianna attempts to woo Luis Felipe, a hard, unfeeling tabloid journalist who has her take grisly pictures of murder victims for him. Both Marianna and Andre are destined to meet an unpleasant fate at the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A desperate young couple flees the scene of a car accident that they caused in hopes of protecting their infant daughter, only to find their sanctuary isn't quite the safe house they expected it to be in this Spanish-language thriller from director Gabriel Retes. Now, as two sadistic bandits wander the hallways of the remote hotel seeking victims for their unspeakable crimes, the impoverished parents soon find that they may be forced to make amends for their transgression in the most painful manner imaginable. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide