José Torres Movies

A middle-aged white man recalls the summer some 35 years ago during which he lost his innocence in director Fernando Vendrell's 2002 coming-of-age drama Light Drops. Visiting an old abandoned settlement in Mozambique that he and his family lived in during the 1950s, Rui Pedro (Luis Sarmento) remembers another homecoming he had at this same spot when he was 14. Via flashback, a young Rui (Filipe Carvalho) rejoins the community with joy as he reconnects with his white and African friends. Trouble comes soon afterwards in the form of two white visitors -- a relative of Rui's from South Africa and an army officer. The relative begins sowing the seeds of discontent by having an affair with Rui's family's maid, Ana (Alexandra Antunes), a very close friend of Rui's who had just married another domestic in the Pedro household. Not long after, her new husband and the tribe learn of her infidelity and exact the severe punishment prescribed by tribal law. Meanwhile, the army officer institutes strict guidelines governing the farming practices of the region, making it virtually impossible for any of the indigenous peoples of the region to survive. As rebellion looms over the countryside, Rui realizes his own father is complicit in exploiting the natives and is forced to choose sides in the oncoming battle between the settlers and the natives. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Jose Vicente Abreu, this film follows a group of Venezuelan leftists as they are arrested, imprisoned and tortured, along with others who opposed that country's dictators. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The third (and last) of author Norman Mailer's experiments in cinéma vérité filmmaking created between 1968 and 1970, Maidstone stars Mailer as Norman T. Kingsley, a celebrated filmmaker who is often described as "the American Buñuel." Kingsley and a large retinue of friends, actors, and colleagues have descended on his estate in Upstate New York to work on his latest project, a sexually provocative drama. At the same time, Kingsley is planning to launch a campaign for president, and he's visited by a large number of guests eager to discuss his political perspectives, including journalists, academics, and a handful of African-American radicals. Also on hand is Kingsley's ever-present posse of hangers-on nicknamed "the cash box," led by his half-brother Raoul (Rip Torn). As a British television reporter records the proceedings for an upcoming profile, a shadowy group of American intelligence agents questions if the nation might be better off without the possibility of a Kingsley candidacy. In the film's final reels, Mailer and his cast and crew drop their collective improvisation and discuss their work so far before the camera, but Torn takes it upon himself to give the film the ending he feels it needs by attacking Mailer with a hammer. Fascinating if only for its remarkable portrait of Mailer's legendary ego in full flight, Maidstone would be the writer's last stab at filmmaking until he was hired to direct a film adaptation of his novel Tough Guys Don't Dance in 1987. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A skillful thief with a penchant for knives attempts to outwit a slew of bloodthirsty treasure hunters in this brutal Italian Western from director Sergio Sollima. The gold they seek may be enough to finance the Mexican Revolution -- depending on who gets to it first and what they intend to do with it. Whether it's the thief Cuchillo (Tomas Milian), his passionate fiancée, the sheriff-turned-bounty-hunter, the ruthless bandits, or the fearsome American agents who end up with the gold, two things are certain -- the stakes are high and the competition is literally cutthroat. Run, Man, Run! also features music by Bruno Nicolai and the legendary film composer Ennio Morricone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Gilbert Roland and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes star in this spaghetti western. Bounty hunter George Hilton is dispatched to track down a wily criminal. Hilton decides to wait until the crook leads him to a fortune in buried gold; at that point, the so-called hero intends to stake his own claim. Naturally, not everything works out as planned. Go Kill & Come Back features a Francesco De Masi musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Author Norman Mailer's sporadic ventures into filmmaking are usually pretty bad, but never without interest. Beyond the Law co-stars Mailer and several of his cronies, including fellow-author George Plimpton and actor Rip Torn. Also in the cast is Beverly Bentley, the onetime Mrs. Mailer. Set in a New York police precinct house, the improvised plotline concerns illicit gambling, motorcycle bums and corrupt city officials. The stilted, self-conscious performances of the cast indicate that Mailer might have been better off with a real script. Only Rip Torn looks as though he's playing a character rather than playing an actor playing a character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide