Lucia Alvarez Movies

Uprisings in Mexico bring about the fall of General Porfirio Díaz and spark the Revolution War of 1910. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A handful of self-styled bohemians reveal their less attractive sides in this improvised drama from filmmaker Rob Nilsson. Martha (Elisabeth Kirsch) runs an art gallery in a shabby but fashionable section of Kansas City; the gallery is having money troubles, and with property values on the rise in the neighborhood, Denny (Denny Dey), a developer, would love nothing more than to get his hands on the building, though Martha has no interest in selling to him. Martha is opening a show featuring the work of two local artists, Rossana (Rossana Jeran) and Sally (Sally Bremenkamp) who are bitter rivals for attention among the city's creative community; Rossana is also having a lesbian relationship with a woman who has been financing her work, despite the fact her benefactor is married. Opening night for the show is filled with drama, as Martha has to deal with Denny's hard-sell tactics and her daughter's abrasive attempts to sell Martha on featuring her boyfriend's work at the gallery. Featuring a cast of primarily non-professional actors who improvised their own dialogue and crafted their own characters, Opening premiered at the 2006 Mill Valley Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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, Rovi

The legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography ( or as director Arturo Ripstein puts it "an imaginary biography"). Lucha Reyes was an unconventional, and sexually liberated woman, most famous for her "cancion ranchera" style singing. Her story begins in 1939, where at 33 she still lived at home with her mother, Dona Victora, the madame of a renowned Mexico City whorehouse. Lucha marries the liberal Pedro Calderon and then buys a beggar's daughter. She becomes the mother to this child, Luzma. Lucha craves lasting love like junkies crave heroin. But for her loyal daughter, she never finds it and in the end no one can help her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Dull-witted Mexican peasant Ernesto Gomez Cruz comes into possession of a rooster severely injured in a cockfight. He restores the bird's health and wins several bouts, then runs afoul of gambler Alejandro Parodi, who has the rooster's ribs cracked so it can never win again. Taking Cruz under his wing, the gambler teaches the peasant how to be tops in the speculating field. In the company of Parodi's girlfriend Blanca Guerra, who functions as a human good-luck charm, Cruz becomes successful, but Guerra tires of living in Cruz's shadow and kills herself. More than a little influenced by Luis Bunuel, the Mexican Realm of Fortune (El Imperio De La Fortuna) won several awards in its country of origin, though it has only fitfully seen the light of day in the US. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi