jcperez_1974

The venezuelan cinema is plagued of easy-effect movies, and most writers resort to the well-known formulas for appealing crowds: sex and violence. Add poverty and low production values due to tight budgets and voilá you get yourself an all-venezuelan movie. No wonder our cinema is not supported by many in the country.

However, La Virgen Negra (The Black Virgin) sweep aside the recipe and director Ignacio Castillo adventures itself into a more bold project, not re-inventing anything but making use of magnificent resorts already elaborated by Latin-American writers of the boom era.

In a coast town somewhere in the Caribbean, which we venezuelan viewers like to think is located in Venezuela, Manita (Carolina Torres) is troubled because his man does not want to please her anymore, so she seeks help in Lurdita played wonderfully by Angélica Aragón -Lurdita is a sort of mysterious local character who everyone knows have some obscure magical tricks- to make her husband love her again. Lurdita accepts to help her with one condition: Manita must have the town's virgin replaced by a black virgin that Lurdita will provide. The town at first rejects the ugly virgin but since Manita did the change supported by Ms. Isabel (Carmen Maura), the town leader, they ended up accepting the statue and even asking for miracles which start to happen all over the town. The only problem is the unlimited generosity of the black virgin to concede miracles to anyone who ask for one with the subsequent unexpected results.

The acting is very good, with a supporting cast assembled of seasoned hispanoamerican actors (Carmen Maura, Angélica Aragón, Francisco Díaz, Caridad Canelón) as well as new young promises (Geily Rosales who plays Negrita a young little girl with an unleashed tongue who provides most of the script's smiles). The vivid colors of the tropical scenery are treat to our senses and the witty script also by Ignacio Castillo, keeps us smiling almost every minute. The only thing I would criticized is the selection of the Franklin character as the voice in off, the script is too elaborated for making us believe that a 10 years old kid in a very isolated town with poor education could be capable of delivering it. It took away more opportunities for stealing smiles from the audience, but the movie is so charming that this mistake is easily forgivable.

La Virgen Negra is the proof that Venezuela can make honest cinema of good quality with a low budget.

Mystic River (From director Clint Eastwood) is definitely a masterpiece of crime genre. This intense drama about the investigation of the murder of a young woman will give you a ride on the emotion spectrum with the same intensity as in a roller-coaster. Slowly paced, beautiful shady photography, unforgettable performances by almost the whole cast will keep you entertained from the beginning to the end.

The story is about three guys, Jimmy (Sean Penn), Dave (Tim Robbins) and Sean (Kevin Bacon), friends during their childhood days, not quite so after a horrible incident happen to one of them in their youngster's days. All of them lead completely different lives and although the live in the same neighborhood, they hardly talk to each other. Jimmy became a thieve and did some time in jail. Dave, who was raped by two pedophiles, now lives a quiet, insignificant life together with his wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden). Sean has a troublesome life since his wife abandon him, taking his newborn daughter along with her, though Sean's wife call him very often, she does not say a word to him on the phone, just listen Sean's voice. The night Katie, Jimmy's daughter, is murdered, she had visited the same bar as Dave, who later on the same night arrive home all freaked out with blood all over him and with a knife cut in his abdomen. When Celeste ask him what has happen to him, he only replies that he has been mugged and that he thinks he had killed the mugger. Dave, which I believe is one of the best performances of Robbins since the Shawshank redemption, becomes the audience's prime suspect but not so to detectives Sean Devine and Whitey Powers (Lawrence Fishburn) who are assigned to the case.

As you already might guess, the movie is all about Sean and Whitey (ironically Afro-American) trying to crack the case. Nonetheless, Eastwood shows that he has the knack for directing flicks, and for storytelling. Mystic River is for me one of the best movies of the year, and I would not be surprise if Eastwood or any of the amazingly good main characters get an Oscar Nomination.

Roger Moore does a very interesting work in his attempt to get GM's president to visit Flint and see by himself the damage his has done to the town by his massive downsizing.

Moor without directly making the question about the social role of big corporations, pretty much leaves open the questioning. Although I have rented this movie as a comedy documentary, I believe it is pretty serious. Yes, Michael Moore has a very sarcastic and ironic way o presenting the facts but he focuses in the core matters and that is the moral behind the facts. I watch Bowling for Columbine and hi did a great job on that documentary too. Roger & Me is not as brilliant as the former but I think the most important is that he has somehow created a new way of making documentaries, which is so appealing as they dig deep in the matter to be presented. Moore achieves its goal, which (to my understanding) is to report the news after making a thorough investigation and at the same time to give a critic position about it. Not only stating his point of view but also allowing the viewer to make up his own.

I'm eagerly awaiting for Moore's next documentary because it's clear that he has enhanced his documentary style which is indeed very unique and great.