Investigations

In case you are not familiar, Sebastian's first big movie was Ratas, Ratones y Rateros. That was a great movie, it showed a side of Ecuador that hadn't been explores or showed before. He had the magic of showing a probably not unique story in a unique way, a Latin and Ecuadorian way.

In Cronicas, he does this and more. First, it shows a reality that may even be unknown for some Ecuadorian. It escapes from big cities and nice stories towards the forgotten towns that are only remembered for unethical journalism or plain mockery. Second, now it is not just a story showing themes particular to a Latin audience but applicable and important for viewers anywhere: masks and the true self, the blurry gray region between good and bad, the relevance of regret... and more.

One friend told me, before watching the movie: You will not see TV the same way again. In many ways it is true, Cronicas takes you to the untold and un"spelled-out" stories behind the fractioned images in TV.

I am looking forward to Sebastian's next movie.

Young Ecuadorian director Sebastián Cordéro's "Crónicas" begins and mostly sustains itself as good intense fictional coverage of what can happen when corrupt, sensationalistic journalists in Latin America cover a crime wave far from home base and encounter what even for them are obvious moral conflicts when they attempt to exploit it.

A Mexican news team out of Miami goes to cover the search for "the Monster of Babahoyo," a pedophile serial killer in the province of Los Rios in a remote part of Ecuador. A violent incident in the street when the team arrives in Babahoyo puts their reporter in contact with somebody who may be a victim of public hysteria, or may be the killer. Crónicas never gives you time to think and screws up its suspenseful situation into a tight knot and then lets go and drops you. Somewhat ironically the result feels very like the first episode of a sensational TV miniseries. The film would have been better if it had stepped back occasionally and let us and the story breathe. A haunting opening sequence of a man alone bathing and washing clothes gives a hint of how that might have happened.

The news people are serviceable stereotypes: photogenic lead reporter Manolo Bonilla (John Leguizamo); his sexy female producer Marisa (Leonore Watling), who soon hops into bed with him; his raunchy, substance-abusing cameraman Ivan (José María Yazpik), who has to keep pointing out that they're all supposed to be a team. To lend cred and support to the movie and give them a boss there's Alfred Molina in the background phoning in as Miami anchorman Victor of a fictitious news show, "Una Hora con la Verdad," seen and heard only on tiny TV screens and ever-present cells. Haunting the news team as it prances around and threatening a confrontation that never really materializes is "the only honest cop in Latin America," who happens to be the local police captain and seems to have a lot of time on his hands which he spends tracking the news team and reminding them they're not following the rules. Such reminders are feeble since they're free to fly out whenever they want and have plenty of money to bribe low level cops. Besides that Manolo is asked for his autograph constantly and greeted as a hero for things he now wishes he hadn't done.

Director Sebastián Cordéro's best move in "Crónicas" is to try to build a serial killer who's not a spooky Hannibal Lector type super-villain but a human being whom his victims trust and other people like. Cordéro makes real headway at achieving that goal by choosing the pitiful, sweet-faced Damián Alcázar to play Vinicio Cepeda, the "witness" in prison who may be the suspect. Where Vinicio fits in winds up being too clearly telegraphed, but the best scenes are still the ones where Vinicio gives creepy, insinuating testimony to Manolo (away from Ivan's camera) and bargains for his life.

What also makes "Crónicas" worth watching, if you can stomach the theme and don't mind the simplifications and lack of modulation in the sequences, are the grittily authentic local backgrounds: messy hotel rooms, grungy prison cells, chaotic streets, shantytown dwellings. These give the in-your-face story a sense of authenticity that isn't entirely undercut by the stereotypes and the pumped-up action. What doesn't quite work is a screenplay that gets everything going full speed from the first reel and never lets up till it just walks away leaving you waiting for the next gripping episode.

(Seen at the San Francisco Film Festival, May 3, 2005)

This film is one of the more important films of this age, especially for countries such as the United States where new stations such as Fox News dominate the airwaves. I am very surprised that a film with stars such as John Leguizamo giving great performances, and the support of Alfred Molina, that this film isn't receiving wide distribution in the United States.

The film exposes the fringes of Ecuador by setting the story in one of the country's poorest areas, the province of Los Rios in its filthy capital Babahoyo. Against this backdrop we see a group of journalists from a Mexican news station known for its program "Una Hora con la Verdad (An Hour with the Truth)" confront some of the harsh realities present in these areas. In their efforts to expose the life in los Rios, they learn how little they actually know about the people there and how difficult it can be to provide the Truth for their viewers.

It's hard to rate a movie that you find intensely disturbing and a bit nauseating. I saw this at the Philadelphia Film Festival, and the friend who saw it with me was equally disturbed - we both wanted to give it a rating of F***ed Up. Then again, if you spend the next two hours talking about how much a movie bothered you, that means it was well acted and directed, right?

The reporter (Leguizamo) crosses the boundaries of morality and goes too far in pursuit of his story, and the movie ends on a very unsatisfactory note. Still, the bad guy is very good at being a psychopath, and the reporter and his crew are very good at being morally bankrupt. See Cronicas, but brace yourself for unpleasant subject matter.

I'm a great fan of John Leguizamo. I and millions of fans have watched this young man emerge onto center stage with such enormous abilities few can gage his ultimate limits. He is by far the most impressive, certainly the most gifted and multi-talented thespian to come along since the late great Danny Kaye. Anyone who has followed his career, has seen him express himself in such venues as Comedian, Singer, Dancer and of course Screen Actor. This is just one of the dozens of film he can be found in. In this story entitled "Cronicas" (Which means, Newspaper) he plays an international reporter who comes across a disturbing story of a Serial Killer. Not only is the man wanted for the murder of dozens of missing children, but the majority of the victims have been raped and dispatched horribly. Leguizamo plays the part of Manolo Bonilla, a gifted, aggressive, crafty but most of all unscrupulous T.V. reporter. Dismissing the ramifications of acting hastily, he sees an opportunity to advance his career in the industry by first enlisting, befriending and eventually releasing the serial killer, Vinicio Cepeda (Damián Alcázar) whom the people call 'The Monster.' Although repeatedly warned his actions might create unwarranted sympathy for the suspect, Bonilla nonetheless proceeds and eventually creates an up swelling of support for the prisoner, despite the fact other inmates have ascertained his guilt. It is not until Bonilla has his story and returning home that several of his sources inform him, he may have been wrong, does he realize his culpability. The movie is great in location, drama and character definitions. Perhaps the only draw-back to the film is that its nearly all in Spanish and viewers must struggle with sub-titles. One other warning is that a viewer must not be faint of heart as this movie is downright disturbing in topic. ****