Lupe Ontiveros Movies
Bizarre occurrences plague a home, but it remains unclear if they signal a manifestation of evil or the illusory products of a woman's mental breakdown in Dark Mirror, director and co-screenwriter Pablo Proenza's tense supernatural thriller. The tale begins when a family of three -- photographer-cum-mother Deborah (Lisa Vidal), her husband, Jim (David Chisum), and their son, Ian (Joshua Pelegrin) -- move into a house with a number of oddities attached, including not only a shady history, but creepy aesthetic touches such as mirrors that reflect to infinity and panels made of beveled glass. Deborah begins to work toward rebuilding her career behind the camera, but everyone who appears in her photographs suddenly and inexplicably dies. On an even more unsettling note, Deborah begins to suspect that the two women closest to her -- her best friend and her mother -- are in fact the walking dead, or zombies. The occurrences in the house seem to manifest themselves as omens, beckoning Deborah to interpret everything, but the signs conflict -- and threaten to drive Deborah beyond the point of comprehension when she discovers an odd book left behind by the prior owners, and filled with strange, cryptic diagrams and notations. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Vidal, David Chisum, (more)
- 2005
When Mama Solis succumbs to her injuries, everyone from Wisteria Lane attends the funeral. Andrew Van De Kamp (Shawn Pyfrom) continues to act up, and his parents consider sending him to a juvenile disciplinary camp. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) makes friends with Alisa Stevens (Marlee Martin), whose children attend the same school as Lynette's boys, but friendship can be a fragile thing when lips are loose. And the bond formed between Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) in the previous episode is sorely tested when the two ladies again find themselves vying for the attentions of the same man -- in this case, contractor Bill Cunningham (Rick Ravanello). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
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A presentation of the daily PBS Kids programming block, Maya & Miguel was a Latino-flavored educational cartoon series geared for children aged 5 through 11. Maya Santos was a lively 10-year-old Hispanic girl who was insatiably curious about the world around her, and who also came up with a million and one ideas to help those around her--in short, a well-meaning busybody, who invariably learned an important Life Lesson, or a new aspect of Latino culture and history, the end of each half-hour episode. Maya was accompanied in her exploits by her twin brother Miguel, her 7-year-old Mexican cousion Tito, and her ethnically diverse friends, among them Chrissy, Maggie, Theo and Andy. The adult characters included Maya and Miguel's incredibly supportive parents Miguel and Rosa, the kids' warm-hearted grandmother Abuela Elena, and friendly neighborhood mailman Senor Felipe. The Hispanic characters all spoke bilingually, switching from English to Spanish and back again with exhilarating abandon. Produced by Scholastic Productions and funded in part by a cooperative agreement between PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the US Department of Education, Maya & Miguel debuted October 1, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Candi Milo, Nika Frost, (more)
- 2004
Sharon Lawrence makes her first series appearance as obstreperous "super-mom" Maisy Gibbons, with whom Lynette (Felicity Huffman) has a run-in over a matter of political correctness. Meanwhile, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) has good reason to worry that her mother-in-law (Lupe Ontiveros) knows all about her backstairs romance with the gardener. It is beginning to dawn on Bree (Marcia Cross) that the days of her "perfect" marriage are numbered. And Susan (Teri Hatcher) wants to find out why Zach Young (Cody Kasch) has been bundled off to a mental institution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Already anxious to hide her clandestine romance from her husband, Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is further confounded by the arrival of her troublesome mother-in-law, Juanita (Lupe Ontiveros). Susan (Teri Hatcher) impulsively dates Officer Rick Thompson (Steven Eckholdt), who is investigating a break-in in the neighborhood -- for which Susan's erstwhile beau Mike Delfino (James Denton) may be responsible. And Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and her husband, Tom (Doug Savant), enroll their contentious twins in a private school -- as if that will solve the problem! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Burdened with guilt over her past behavior, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) throws herself into a "mission" -- to stage a fashion show featuring her female friends on Wisteria Lane. Meanwhile, Susan (Teri Hatcher) is caught in the middle when she finds out about Gabrielle and John (Jesse Metcalfe) -- while John's mom, Helen (Kathryn Harrold), thinks her son is fooling around with Susan. Bree (Marcia Cross) uses her own judgment in dealing with the repulsive behavior of her son, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom). And Lynette (Felicity Huffman) suffers unexpected consequences when she "steals" a nanny for her kids. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Having already made trouble for Susan (Teri Hatcher), Mrs. Huber (Christine Estabrook) now turns her sights on Bree (Marcia Cross) -- who has plenty of marital headaches already. As for Susan, she is kept busy spying on Mike (James Denton) during his tête-à-tête with the toothsome Kendra (Heather Stephens). Elsewhere, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) finds herself vying with Bree's daughter (Joy Lauren) for the attentions of hunky gardener John (Jesse Metcalfe). Bree's shiftless son, Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom), causes an accident that puts Gabrielle's mother-in-law (Lupe Ontiveros) in the hospital. And Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is secretly partaking of the medication prescribed for her twins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2004
Susan (Teri Hatcher) begins to fear that Mike (James Denton) may have had darker motives for moving to Wisteria Lane when she snoops around his house. Lynette (Felicity Huffman) tries to break her dependence upon her twins' medication. Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) has what she thinks is a real estate meeting with the enigmatic Mr. Shaw (Richard Roundtree) -- who in turn may know something about Paul Young's strange behavior. The accident that put Gabrielle's mother-in-law, Juanita (Lupe Ontiveros), in the hospital is taking its toll on Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) as well -- as witness her confession of her past peccadilloes. And the snoopy Mrs. Huber (Christine Estabrook) leaves the scene in a decisive -- and violent -- fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Kelsey Grammer stars as Nick St. Nicholas, a Miami-based playboy philanthropist who is about to make his life complete by wedding the girl of his dreams, gorgeous TV weathercaster Heidi Gardelle (Elaine Hendrix). Not known to the general public is that the profligate St. Nicholas is really the son of none other than Santa Claus (Charles Durning)--or, as the jolly old elf is known in this story, Nicholas XXX. Expected to take over the "family business" at the North Pole before his father's power fades, Nick balks, choosing instead to remain in Miami, where he is about to launch his latest charity at the behest of his fiancee Heidi. By the time he realizes that his "dream girl" is actually a mercenary nightmare, Nick finds himself besieged by a vindictive INS agent (Colin Cunningham)--and racked with guilt over the gloomy fate awaiting his father and the North Pole toy factory. It is up to Santa's head elf Jasper (Brian Bedford) and Nick's lovely Latino cook Lorena (Ana Ortiz) to come to the rescue. Armed with a surprising number of sexually suggestive jokes for an ostensible family film, Meet St. Nick was coproduced by Disney Films and Hallmark Entertainment, and was first broadcast as an episode of ABC's Wonderful World of Disney anthology on November 17, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelsey Grammer
- 2002
Series creator Peter Murrieta based the weekly, half-hour sitcom Greetings From Tucson on his own experience growing up in a multicultural household. When he received a promotion on his job, Mexican-American patriarch Joaquin (Julio Oscar Mechoso) moved his family into a slightly more upscale Tucson neighborhood. Despite his new surroundings, the rule-bound Joaquin remained loyal to the "old values" passed down from his homeland, and tended to keep his children -- son David (Pablo Santos) and daughter Maria (Aimee Garcia) -- on very short leashes. Slightly more liberal in her parental behavior was Joaquin's feisty Irish-American wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Creskoff), while Joaquin's peppery mother Magdalena (Lupe Ontiveros) and indolent brother Ernesto (Jacob Vargas) could easily be described as overraged hippies. Much of the humor was of the culture-clash variety, with Joaquin's Mexican traditionalism, Elizabeth's Irish pragmatism, and daughter Maria's self-imposed Spanish nationalism all brought into play. After a bit of pre-release script tinkering (including changing the family's name from Campos to Tiant and changing the series' title from Just for You), Greetings From Tucson finally premiered on September 20, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julio Oscar Mechoso, Rebecca Creskoff, (more)
- 1994
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This landmark of Chicano cinema is an adaptation of Tomas Rivera's 1971 novel of the same title. Told from the perspective of Marcos, the 12-year-old son of migrant Mexican-American farm workers, the film follows their travels over the course of a year, each of its 12 sections linked to a month of the calendar. The family starts off in Texas at the beginning of harvest season. Their hardscrabble journey takes them across the length and breadth of the Midwest. Along the way, Marcos and his family encounter a rich, difficult, and, at times, pathetic cast of characters including other migrant workers, a shoe salesman, and, in the most startling part of the film, white Americans. Through these encounters, Marcos comes to understand his place in the order of things, namely, near the bottom, discovers the power of familial bonds to comfort and overcome hardship, and uncovers in himself a desire to learn and educate. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Alcala, Daniel Valdez, (more)
Stars of country music fill out the cast of this made-for-TV western. Kenny Rogers plays a bounty hunter who sets off with his newlywed partner (Travis Tritt) to track down the kidnappers who ran off with Tritt's wife (Laura Harring). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1992
In this modern version of a traditional holiday pageant, a young Mexican girl has a dream about the shepherd's who went to Bethlehem to see the young king. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Jonathan Kellerman's Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning novel When the Bough Breaks was evocatively adapted for the TV screen in 1986. Ted Danson plays a clinical psychologist, brought in to tend to an emotionally withdrawn little girl (Rachel Ticotin). There's a possibility that the child may have witnessed an unsolved double murder. As Danson and the girl draw closer, he becomes enmeshed in a homicidal conspiracy sparked by a clique of wealthy, well-connected men. Ted Danson also coproduced When the Bough Breaks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Richard Masur, (more)
El Norte is a realistic picture of both the Guatemalan government's oppression of the Quiche Indians and the hard life of illegal immigrants in the United States. After the Guatemalan army destroys their village of San Pedro, two teenage Quiche Mayan Indian siblings journey north (hence El Norte) through Mexico to the United States to start a new life. The film opens with the destruction of the village and the peasants' pointless appeals to the authorities for justice. Realizing that the government is seizing their land, Enrique and Rosa make the difficult decision to leave their people behind. As they journey through Mexico, the siblings encounter a number of helpful individuals who direct them towards the U.S./Mexican border. There they find a "coyote" (a professional human smuggler) and make the frightening run across border. Once across, Enrique and Rosa are introduced to the impossible realities of life as an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles. Living in constant fear of deportation, they struggle to survive as they are exploited by a series of employers. Eventually, their luck takes a turn for the better when the manager of their motel offers Enrique a job. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando, (more)
- 1978
Mel (Vic Tayback) battens down the hatches and gets ready for a big-business bonanza when a busload of hungry customers are slated to arrive at the diner. But the event turns into something less than festive when the bus driver speeds off, leaving his passengers stranded. Contrary to several published reports, this episode was not originally telecast on March 26, 1978; on that occasion, CBS was running the first part of a week-long network retrospective. The actual debut date has been obscured by the fact that "The Bus" is shown out of sequence in the current Alice syndication package (it might have been seen on March 28, as a last-minute replacement for the cancelled variety series Shields and Yarnell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Henry Polic II appears as Walter, who is arguably the most incompetent robber in the his history of crime. Not only does he drop his holdup note on the floor of diner--Alice (Linda Lavin) helpfully retrieves it--but when time comes to claim the dough, the cash register gets jammed. Inevitably, the staff takes pity on the incompetent thief, who despairs that he'll never be able to do anything right...but fate intervenes in the form of an extremely pregnant woman (Lupe Ontiveros) who suddenly goes into labor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
From the controversial director of Happiness comes another dark look at New Jersey, this time broken into two separate stories. The first is a 26-minute segment entitled "Fiction," which highlights the life of Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick), an aspiring writer who was born with deformities due to cerebral palsy. He unsuccessfully tries to read a new short story to his girlfriend Vi (Selma Blair), and leaves her after the story is similarly dismissed by his fellow students and teacher, Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom), a black Pulitzer Prize winner. Vi approaches Mr. Scott in a bar one night and agrees to go home with him, recalling a "fictional" account of their experience in the next class. The second segment, titled "Nonfiction," follows Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti), a thirtysomething sad sack who gets the idea to make a documentary of contemporary suburban teenage life. Looking for subjects, he runs into Scooby (Mark Webber), a disaffected, dim young man who dreams of being a TV star. Scooby's home life is highly dysfunctional, with a strict father (John Goodman), a prim and proper mother (Julie Hagerty), a football player brother (Noah Fleiss), and a younger brother Mikey (Jonathan Osser), who continually chats up the family's put-upon maid Consuelo (Lupe Ontiveros). Consuelo is soon banished from the household due to her involvement with Mikey, becoming an outcast just like Scooby. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Selma Blair, Leo Fitzpatrick, (more)
A man thinks he's found the woman of his dreams until he discovers someone else already had the same idea in this romantic comedy-drama with a primarily Hispanic cast. Mike (Jaime P. Gomez) is employed at a psychiatric hospital in California, where he meets Gabriela (Seidy Lopez), a young woman who is also working there while she completes her degree. Mike finds Gabriela to be sweet, charming, intelligent, and very beautiful, but there's a problem -- Gabriela has a fiancé, Pat (Zach Galligan). While Pat and Gabriela's relationship is hardly perfect -- she's very busy with work and school, and he's very devoted to his career -- Gabriela takes it very seriously, and Mike tries to resign himself to the fact that he and Gabriela are never going to be anything more than friends. But as they spend more time together, sparks begin to fly between Mike and Gabriela, forcing her to choose one man over the other. Completed in 2000, Gabriela found a distributor in 2001, when it was picked up by the independent distribution firm Power Point Films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaime Gomez, Seidy Lopez, (more)
Following his critically acclaimed Star Maps, Miguel Arteta directs this perverse Odd Couple-esque comedy drama. Childhood best buddies Chuck and Buck are reunited after 18 years during the funeral of the latter's mother. Chuck (Chris Weitz who also produced American Pie (1999)) is a button-down movie executive with a gorgeous blond fiancée, Carlyn (Beth Colt). By contrast, the intervening years do not seem to have matured Buck (Mike White) in the slightest -- he still plays with children's toys, throws bawling temper tantrums, and seems to be utterly at a loss at what to do after his mother's death. During the funeral, Buck greets his old friend with an oblivious joy that is hardly appropriate to the setting. Clearly expecting that the friendship will continue where it left off back during the Carter administration, Buck seems confused and sullen in the presence of Carlyn, a yucky girl. This jealousy turns more unnerving when, in midst of a brotherly hug, Buck makes a clumsy grope for Chuck's manhood. Disturbed and embarrassed, Chuck quickly leaves, but not before Carlyn politely suggests that Buck "visit us in L.A. sometime." Buck leaps at the chance and soon is packing up for California. He quickly degenerates from a silly, though pathetic annoyance to a lollipop-sucking stalker. Buck's bizarre attempts to renew his bond with Chuck and to consummate their relationship puts Chuck increasingly on edge and confronts the affluent yuppie with a past he'd just as soon forget. Chuck & Buck was one of the most talked about films at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike White, Chris Weitz, (more)
Billed as a Latina Waiting to Exhale, this film details the life and loves of four Hispanic women: Sofia, a therapist; Andrea, a divorced lawyer; Irene, a flashy clothes designer; and Lilly, an artist. The women gather every week at the nightspot Luminarias to discuss jobs, family, love, and sex. Sofia, who dates white men in the hope of fitting into Anglo culture, becomes smitten with an amorous Mexican waiter. On the other hand, Andrea, who believes that white guys are only interested in Hispanic woman as exotic love toys, finds herself falling for a Jewish lawyer. While Lilly deals with racism from her Korean-American boyfriend's family, sexpot Irene has her own conflicted feelings toward her transvestite brother. Luminarias was screened at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelina Fernandez, Scott Bakula, (more)
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
