Tom Musca Movies
A remake of Ang Lee's family comedy Eat Drink Man Woman, Maria Ripoli's Hispanic-American ensemble feature set in Southern California about a veteran chef named Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo), who is slowly losing his sense of taste. He has three daughters, all of whom have chosen different paths. There is Letitia (Elizabeth Pena), the oldest and most repressed of the bunch, a rigid schoolteacher who is a member of the Christian faith. His youngest, Maribel (Tamara Mello), is the most assured, though plagued by doubts. His middle daughter Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) is most like him and shares his taste for cooking, but has chosen a career as a corporate consultant, which makes for a more secure lifestyle. She is offered a high-profile job in Barcelona, which causes a rift in the family setting. Maribel soon finds herself drawn to a handsome Brazilian student (Nikolai Kinski), and Letitia is gaining affection for Orlando (Paul Rodriguez), an awkward ballplayer whom her students have sent mistaken love letters to without her knowing. Also at their dinners are a shy single mother (Constance Marie) and her obnoxious mother (Raquel Welch), who has her sights set on Martin's affections. Tortilla Soup is Maria Ripoli's second major feature, after her whimsical 1998 feature Twice Upon a Yesterday. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hector Elizondo, Jacqueline Obradors, (more)
A young single mother, Mercedes ( Talisa Soto), is about to marry solid, dependable Frank (Miguel Sandoval), when a dashing aviator, Clay (Dean Cain), comes into her life. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Talisa Soto, Dean Cain, (more)
Tom Musca directed this social satire on the United States electoral system. The comedy-drama explores how class and race divisions impact on the process when a Chicano housepainter in East Los Angeles decides to run for the city council. Pressured by his wife (Annette Murphy), Gustavo Alvarez (Paul Rodriguez) competes for the council seat left vacant when veteran Jack Durman (Cliff Robertson) retires, but he faces stiff competition from his opponent, the forceful black Lucinda Davis (C.C.H. Pounder). After the two split the Latino and black votes, the campaign begins to get lowdown and dirty as both candidates take aim with cheap shots and corrosive accusations. Stan Ridgway (formerly with Wall of Voodoo) provided the film's Latin-rock music score. Shown at the 1998 Seattle film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Rodriguez, CCH Pounder, (more)
Adapted from a true story, dockworker Joey Coyle (John Cusack) finds over $1 million, which fell from an armored car. Instead of returning the money, he embarks on a spending spree unchecked by the wishes of his friend (Michael Rapaport) and hires a crime ring to launder the money. The detective assigned to the case (Michael Madsen) follows his increasingly distinct tracks. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Debi Mazar, (more)
Jeff Grant (River Phoenix) is a San Diego teen who discovers his father Richard (Richard Jenkins) and mother Elizabeth Grant) are KGB agents. When he applies to the Air Force Academy, a routine FBI check leads to the shocking news. Soon the suburb of Fountain Grove becomes the focus of international agents and espionage. FBI agent Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) helps Jeff absorb the shock and he battles KGB agent Konstantin Karpov (Richard Bradford) in a race to capture the Soviet agents. The excellent performances from Poitier and Phoenix are the highlight of this feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, (more)
Edward James Olmos portrays the real-life Jaime Escalante, a no-nonsense mathematic teacher in a tough East LA high school. Handed a classroom full of "losers" and "unteachables," Escalante is determined to turn his young charges' lives around. Drawing from his own cultural heritage, Escalante forms a bond with his largely Hispanic student body, evoking the names of famous Spaniards and Latin Americans whose great accomplishments were predicated on their ability to learn. The students gradually come to realize that the only way they'll escape their own poverty-stricken barrio is to improve themselves intellectually. As a result, the class' academic achievements soar dramatically -- too dramatically for the Educational Testing Service, which is convinced that the class' high test scores are the results of cheating. The triumphant exoneration of Escalante's students provides Stand and Deliver with its rousingly upbeat conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, (more)
- 1984
- R
Shot in a cinema verite style, perhaps because this film about teenage prostitution began as a project while director Rose-Marie Turko was a student at UCLA, the format tends to hit home better than a more artificial approach. (Actors and real street people are difficult to distinguish.) Although starting out as a story about how young Ruby Star (Jennifer Mayo) was forced into prostitution in order to support herself and her baby, the film quickly dips into the seamier side of life after Ruby meets a pimp nicknamed Easy (David Dean) and gets involved with a demi-monde of degenerates. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Mayo, Jackie Berryman, (more)
Alex Cox's directorial debut was a wickedly funny and willfully bizarre story that became a major cult item once it began making the art-house rounds a year after its release (an initial run in a string of Southern grind houses and drive-ins, where it was billed as an action film, was a resounding failure). Having lost his job and his girlfriend, punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) meets a guy named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who offers him $25 to drive his wife's car out of a "bad area." When a handful of angry people start chasing Otto, he realizes that something is up, and he discovers that Bud repossesses cars for a living. With few immediate prospects, Otto joins Bud at the repo yard and is soon "ripping" cars with the best of them. When an anonymous source posts a $20,000 reward for a missing 1964 Chevy Malibu, it turns out that what's valuable isn't the car itself, but what's in the trunk, which is very hot, glows brightly, and kills anyone who comes in contact with it. A vaguely surreal modern-noir science-fiction comedy with echoes of Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Repo Man is packed with more incongruous sight gags than anyone can absorb in one viewing; keep your eyes peeled for the air fresheners, the generic newspaper box, and the watches without hands. Harry Dean Stanton gives a superb comic performance as the intense but laid-back Bud, Emilio Estevez delivers perhaps the best work of his career as the petulant but goofy Otto, and Tracey Walter is hilarious as the spaced out repo-yard man Miller. Iggy Pop wrote and performed the theme song and The Circle Jerks appear as a lounge band. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, (more)
