El cantante

Salsa. The term was coined in the 1970s by young musicians like Hector Lavoe, Larry Harlow, Ray Baretto, Willie Colon, who wanted a different name for the kind of music they were playing. The term "salsa" was then popularized by Izzy Sanabria, owner of the Latin New York magazine, and Jerry Massuci, owner of Fania Records. There is a huge debate over whether "salsa" originated in Cuba or Puerto Rico. I love Afro-Cuban music, so I tend to favor Cuba, but it really doesn't matter as there are so many styles - Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, LA, New York, Columbian, Mambo.

This film is a tribute to salsa and to Hector Lavoe - The Voice. Marc Anthony does a good job of impersonating Lavoe and giving us a look into his demons - alcohol, drugs, jealous fantasy. Jennifer Lopez plays his wife, Puchi, and we see the trials and tribulations of a marriage that was shaky at best.

Enjoy the music and enjoy JLo. What more do you want?

Quite true to the actual events of Hector Lavoe's life, the acting and direction of El Cantante are top notch. Jennifer Lopez probably gives the finest performance of her career, while Mark Anthony without a doubt deserves an Oscar for his star role. I saw this film on Sept. 12/2006 at the Toronto International Film Festival and Jennifer and Mark's presence overshadowed the film itself. However as a stand alone film, it is excellent and my only criticism would be the editing, the cinematography and some of the subtitles which were quite different from what the actors were actually saying. The cinematography seemed quite Schizophrenic at times, while the editing was occasionally shaky. Leon Ichaso has done an excellent job as usual in the direction of El Cantante and while this may be a somewhat low budget film, it is a high caliber production. The music, locales and wardrobe are outstanding as well. While some may dismiss this as a husband and wife chance to work together, given a chance, El Cantante is an excellent film quite able to fight for its chance at a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

In 1963, Hector Perez was already a promising young singer in his native Puerto Rico when, at the age of seventeen, he moved to New York City to try and make a name for himself as a performer there. In no time flat, he was playing in clubs, had signed a lucrative recording contract with the Latin-flavored Fania Records, and had changed his name to the far more exotic-sounding Hector Lavoe. From the mid-1960s to his death from AIDS in 1993, Lavoe was an international sensation who helped to popularize the musical style known as "Salsa." But, as with most artists, he lived a life of self-destructive self-indulgence, marked by serial philandering and hardcore drug abuse. He also had a volatile relationship with "Puchi," the Bronx girl who became his wife and who narrates "El Cantante," the glossy movie about his life.

Despite the novelty of the milieu and an undeniable sincerity on the part of everyone involved in its production, "El Cantante" remains doggedly conventional, lackluster and superficial in its treatment of the kind of material with which we are all too familiar from previous biopics that have chronicled the rise and fall of artists of all categories and stripes. Marc Antony brings a certain ferocity and depth to his portrayal of the struggling celebrity, but real-life wife Jennifer Lopez is all fluttery overacting as the woman who stood by her man through good times and bad (mostly bad). The music is enjoyable, but I'm afraid we've all been down this road so many times before that "El Cantante" fails to stir either our passions or our sympathy for the sadly benighted couple and all that they're going through. You'd be better off buying the albums instead.

Jennifer Lopez can act, Gigli notwithstanding. In El Cantante she narrates the life of 70's Salsa songster Hector Lavoe (Marc Anthony) with some sparks of creative energy. After all, as Puchi, she smoke, drank, and took drugs with him on his way to stardom, inevitable obscurity, and early death. Enabler? Maybe. Witness the Ray Charles, Kurt Cobain arc and you'll know how Hector's life sank so low (no homonym pun intended).

El Cantante is a disappointment because the celebrity couple Lopez and Anthony could have had Oscar flyovers with better script and direction. Many of the scenes are stock musical biopic: low-angle shots of the star strumming and singing, cut to drugs, cut to wife, back to another performance moment, cut to a Fania album cover, all with MTV swift editing and few scenes of depth that are not clichés of the first order.

Clint Eastwood's life of Charlie Bird Parker is a classic of character development; the recent La Vein Rose about chanteuse Edith Piaf depicts the artist sufferer in a mixed bag of time but a straightforward rendition of talent. Cantante shows a druggie who might have been an icon but for his weaknesses. If I have to sit through drug and alcohol addled performers once more, I need better story, regardless of how accurate the film is.

I don't want a documentary—I want an interpretation. Cantante is just a musical like any other, no more.

I couldn't wait to see this movie, however, it was a little disappointing because of the jumpy and sloppy editing. Marc Anthony was great as Hector Lavoe, and Jennifer Lopez was equally as good as Puchi. I went to almost all the venues that Hector played in, including the Palladium, which was the place to go. I saw them all, from Tito Rodriguez, Pacheco, Kako and Tito Puente, etc. However, Hector had this easy style of singing and held you until he was finished. One point I would like to make, Marc Anthony at the present time is the king of Salsa. He can fill a stadium like no other. Hector Lavoe unfortunately was too involved in drugs from the onset...this was part of the musician's scene at the time. Drugs were prevalent, and he made it a part of his life. Anyone who was raised in New York, the City and the Bronx understands that the drugs consumed most musicians. Hector could have been the biggest personality ever, but he blew that gig, sorry to say. I liked the movie, but was not crazy about it. As another writer noted, the character could have been developed a bit more then it was. It was worth the price of admission just to hear all the great music.