Classics

A pair of professional thieves find their complex plan to take a millionaire and popular television guru for all he's worth complicated by the fact that their old crew wants no part of the high-risk job in director Joe Menendez's tense crime caper. Emilio (Miguel Varoni) and Alejandro (Fernando Colunga) have hatched a plan for the perfect crime, but in order to carry out their caper the diabolical duo will need a crack crew who can stealthily inject themselves into the inner circle of their wealthy mark. Moctesuma Valdez is a man of power with many personal servants, and if Emilio and Alejandro's team can simply assume the guise of gardener, maid, or chauffer, they will be in the perfect position to strike when Valdez least expects it. When the skilled members of the regular team all reject the plan, Emilio and Alejandro are forced to hire "real" immigrants to get the job done. From electronics expert Julio to father/daughter transportation team Rafa and Rafaela and skilled disguise artist Miguelito it seems as if all of the elements have come together, but what to make of a crew who has all of the qualifications and no actual criminal experience? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Assigned the thankless task of teaching freshman English at a gang-infested Long Beach, CA high school, a 23-year-old teacher resorts to unconventional means of breaking through to her hardened students in director Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Erin Gruwell's best-seller The Freedom Writer's Diaries: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Her students had been written off, and her chances of succeeding scoffed at, but Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) wasn't about to go down without a fight. Long Beach is a place where a new war is waged with each passing day, and when the hardened students who walk those dangerous hallways sense an outsider attempting to understand their plight, their cynical resentment threatens to keep a deadly cycle in motion. Despite the initially hostile reaction she receives in the classroom, Gruwell uses the writings of Anne Frank and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo to teach her students not only the basis of the English language, but compassion and tolerance as well. Later, when the time comes to tell their own tales in a project specially designed to explore the daily violence that the majority of students have grown numb to, the barriers that had once stood so strong gradually begin to crumble. When the only chance for survival is to befriend the person who was once your mortal enemy, the world is opened to a whole new realm of possibilities. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Made for cable, Walkout is the true story of a little-known but profoundly significant moment in the history of the Latino community in East Los Angeles. In 1968, Lincoln High School honor student Paula Crisostomo (Alexa Vega), outraged at the shabby treatment afforded Chicano students in the L.A. school system -- including habitually lowered expectations, poor facilities, a total absence of bilingual courses or textbooks, unfairly administered penalties for slight infractions, demeaning corporal punishment, and out-of-hand refusal to write letters of recommendation to choice colleges -- challenges the authority of her elders for the first time in her life by organizing a mass student walkout at five barrio high schools. Mentored by dedicated young teacher Sal Castro (Michael Pena), Paula and her fellow student activists intend to make their protest a peaceful one, but the L.A. cops typically use brute force to quell the "radicals." Even when it seems that the school board will capitulate to the Chicano students' demands, the kids are betrayed (there's an undercover police officer in their midst) and the leaders of the walkout are threatened with lengthy prison sentences on trumped-up "conspiracy" charges. It will not spoil the ending of the film to reveal that the students are ultimately successful; as directed by actor Edward James Olmos (who also plays one of the school board members), the dramatic thrust of the story is the lasting effect that the protest has on its participants -- especially the idealistic Paula Crisostomo. Executive producer Moctesuma Esparza, who'd been one of the original walkout organizers back in 1968, spent a full two decades getting this story on film; Esparza is played by Bodie Olmos, son of the director, while Esparza's daughter Tonantzin Esparza is seen as Vickie Castro. Also, Paula Crisostomo's daughter Marisol Crisostomo-Romo is seen as Mita -- and in addition, several of the former student activists are interviewed during the closing credits, or appear as extras in the crowd scenes. Produced for HBO, Walkout originally aired on March 18, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bill Resler was a professor at the University of Washington who had possessed a passionate interest in basketball. Resler decided to put his love of the game to work when he heard that Seattle's Roosevelt High School needed a coach for their women's basketball team. Despite having almost no experience as a coach, Resler landed the job, and soon began making a difference with the team, firing his players up with enthusiasm and encouraging them to think of themselves not as girl basketball players, but as athletes. Resler's coaching helped to turn a team that usually sat near the bottom of the rankings into serious contenders for a district championship, and produced at least one star player, point guard Darnella Russell. Russell is a gifted player who hopes she can turn her talent on the court into a college scholarship, since her family can't afford to send her on their own dime, but Russell also has a sharp tongue and a short temper that has earned her a reputation as a disciplinary problem. When Russell becomes pregnant, she finds herself fighting to remain in school, and to hold on to her eligibility to play on the team in the future. The Heart of the Game is a documentary which examines Bill Resler's fight to rebuild the women's basketball program at Roosevelt and Russell's battle to stay in the game. The Heart of the Game earned an enthusiastic reception following its screenings at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The romantic comedy El Juego de la Verdad follows the exploits of two married couples who are friends. When one of the husbands discovers he has a terminal disease, he asks the male member of the other marriage if he can sleep with his friend's wife. All the other people involved react in surprising ways, forcing everyone to reconsider their feelings. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The forsaken world of Bolivian silver miners is brought to the screen in this powerful documentary. Basilio Vargas is a 14-year-old boy living in the impoverished Cerro Rico region of Bolivia. Since the death of his father, Basilio and his younger brother Bernardino are the breadwinners in his family, and they support their mother and siblings working in the Cerro Rico silver mines. Basilio is one of 800 children who regularly work the mines, and it's indicative of the danger and physically punishing nature of the work that the miners swear fealty to "Tio" -- the Devil -- because it's believed God would never enter such a place. Cerro Rico's silver miners have an average life expectancy of 40 years or less, thanks to the poisoned air, the constant heat, the use of explosives, the primitive and unsafe equipment, and the long hours demanded of the laborers (most are sent into the mines for 24-hour shifts, and both children and adults often chew coca leaves to ward off hunger and fatigue). While Basilio's more fortunate classmates make fun of him when he's able to attend school, he realized his family need the money and he's willing to endure the agony for the small wage he makes every day. The Devil's Miner chronicles several days in the life of Basilio Vargas as a document of the inhuman conditions he and his fellow miners face, as well as the young man's bravery. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

 

The black comedy Esperame en Siberia Vida Mia concerns a wealthy man who is manipulated into taking a bride, the daughter of a nefarious doctor. The doctor attempts to get his hands on the fortune by convincing the wealthy man he should end his own life rather than face a terminal disease. Soon the doctor must hire help to finish off the man who they are having a very difficult time finishing off. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A seemingly idyllic childhood is shattered in a nation torn apart by civil war in this powerful drama from Peru. Juan was an 11-year-old boy living in a small rural community when the town's corrupt mayor was killed. Local authorities believe that the murderers are part of the "Sendero Lumino" (meaning "Shining Path"), an underground revolutionary army dedicated to bringing down the government, and Juan's father, Fermin (Aristoteles Picho), is arrested for suspected involvement with the group. As Juan tries to adjust to life without his father, he's abducted by Wilmer (Sergio Galliani), a Sendero Lumino organizer who is grooming children of the movement into a guerilla army, though Juan has no inherent desire to fight. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Argentine director Juan Carlos Desanzo offers a grim variation on the classic tale of Oliver Twist with this gritty tale of a young orphan who falls in with a decidedly undesirable crowd. A resourceful street kid who earns his keep as a subway busker after fleeing from his abusive parents, the young runaway is soon bestowed with the moniker of "El Polaquito" due to his faithful renditions of the popular Polish tango singer's enduring ballads. Despite his rebellious nature and distaste for authority figures, El Polaquito soon finds employment with the shady Rengo - a thuggish criminal who employs a variety of child prostitutes, beggars, and thieves. Though he would like nothing more than to break free from Rengo's suffocating grip, El Polaquito finds his options frustratingly limited due to the fact that both his sister and the object of his affections are also employed by Rengo. Now, as he makes a valiant effort to break away and take along the two people he cares about most, El Polaquito is about to discover if he truly has what it takes to survive in an uncaring society in which the death of a common street child is a casual, everyday occurrence. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

As violence and chaos sweeps across the Mexican landscape no one is safe from the destruction that threatens to wipe out everything in its path in a nail-biting thriller directed by Vicente Fernandez and starring Patricia Aspillaga. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

When the servants of a wealthy family invite over the masons for a wild party celebrating the Day of the Santacruz, their big bash is unexpectedly interrupted as the owners of the home make an unexpected return in a sexy comedy starring Manuel Ibanez and Rebeca Silva. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi