Pablo Cruz Movies

Michael Pena stars as labor activist Cesar E. Chavez in this biopic directed by Diego Luna. America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Actor Diego Luna stepped behind the camera to direct this warm drama about a young boy whose emotional problems take him in an unexpected direction. Abel is an unstable child whose issues have only gotten worse since his father walked out on the family. No one in the household is sure what to do for Abel or how they should behave around him, and a stay in a mental hospital does little to ground him. However, one day Abel wakes up and decides that he's the man of the house, and begins acting like his absent father rather than the youngest child. To the surprise of everyone, adult responsibilities agree with Abel, and the family seems significantly happier with his new personality. But this proves to be short-lived when Abel's real dad unexpectedly returns, and the two vie for the status of head of the household. Abel received its world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga makes his feature directorial debut with this epic dramatic thriller following a Honduran teenager who reunites with her long-estranged father and attempts to emigrate to America with him in order to start a new life. Inspired by the director's firsthand experience with Central American immigrants, Sin Nombre opens to find dejected teenager Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) biding her time in Honduras while dreaming of a brighter future. Upon reuniting with the father she hasn't seen in years, Sayra seizes the opportunity to finally make her dreams a reality. Her father has a new family in the United States, and he's preparing to travel with her uncle to Mexico, where they will then cross the border to freedom. Meanwhile, in Mexico, Tapachula teen Casper (aka Casper, played by Edgar Flores), has gotten caught up with the notorious Mara Salvatrucha street gang. He's just delivered a new recruit to the Maras in the form of desperate 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), and though the youngster's initiation proves particularly rough, she adapts to gang life rather quickly. As involved as Casper is with the Mara, he does his best to keep his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana Garcia) a secret from the gang. Just as Martha encounters ruthless Mara leader Lil' Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and suffers a grim fate at the hands of the gang, Sayra and her relatives arrive at the Tapachula train yards and prepare to rush a U.S.-bound freight train with a horde of other immigrants. Rather than attempting to gain access to the cars, Sayra and the rest of the immigrants decide to ride atop the train. Little do they realize that their lives are now in danger, because Lil' Mago has recruited Casper and Smiley to rob the immigrants as they make their way to the United States. When dawn comes and Lil' Mago makes his move, Casper finally decides to stand up to the tyrannical gang leader. Now, as the train winds though the Mexican countryside, Sayra's only hope of surviving the journey and making her way to a new beginning is to align herself with Casper as he flees from the most feared gang in Tapachula. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This tense and brutal, Spanish-language crime thriller from Mexico concerns four female bank robbers (Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Ariadna Gil, Victoria Abril and Elena Anaya) whose latest heist puts them in a head-to-head clash with the local mob in Mexico City. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Y Tu Mamá También star Diego Luna makes his directorial debut with this documentary tracing the life and career of Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez. From his very first bouts to his unforgettable matches against such formidable opponents as Oscar De La Hoya and Kostya Tszyu, Luna's film merges past and present by following the legendary Chavez as he prepares for retirement and begins training son Julio César Chávez, Jr. to carry on the fighting family tradition. It isn't every day that a boy who spent his youth in a boxcar in Mexico rises through the ranks to become a six-time world champion, yet somehow Chávez managed to beat the odds to become one the most respected boxers in the history of the sport. Interviews with the pugilist's family and friends reveal the fascinating details about Chávez's rise from poverty, with an examination of the fighter's questionable association with Mexican president Vicente Fox and an ill-conceived "farewell tour" highlighting how social controversy can be as devastating as even the most solid left hook. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two young indigenous brothers from the La Sierra Tarahumara region of northwest Mexico return home from Benito Juarez elementary boarding school, only to find their fates pulling them in opposite directions in director Laura Amelia Guzmán's dramatic meditation on the value of culture and the cost of progress. Evaristo and Luis Antonio Lerma Batista have graduated from boarding school. Though 12-year-old Evaristo would like nothing more than to continue his education, learn Spanish, and lead a bicultural existence, his 11-year-old sibling couldn't see things more differently. Antonio is thrilled to be finished with school. Despite being a considerably bright student, Antonio would much rather spend his days on the family ranch than in the classroom. As both brothers take their tentative first steps into the adult world, they are assigned the task of delivering a package to a faraway community and lent the family horse to get the job done. After taking a wrong turn down a narrow and winding canyon, Evaristo and Antonio decide to tie the horse to a tree and attempt to find a way out. Upon returning some time later, the brothers discover that the horse is missing and they decide to split up. Now, as Antonio searches for the horse and Evaristo sets out to deliver the package, these two brothers will experience a side of Tarahumara culture that can't be taught in a classroom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi