Crónicas

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)

Crónicas is more than just another lame and wannabe provocative satire that wants to prove how the media and charismatic reporters are capable of influencing people's opinions and emotions. In fact, it does handle about that, but it's definitely not a dumb satire. It's a harsh and harrowing social drama, set in an ultimately depressing environment and focusing on the inhabitants of a country that the pubic opinion usually neglects. Here is one foreign film production that Hollywood isn't likely to remake any time soon, and even if some fancy producer would consider a remake, you can rest assured that the content and especially the whole denouement will be changed drastically. The story entirely takes place in a small village in Ecuador, where a feared psychopath has already sexually abused and killed nearly 150 innocent children. New mass graves are discovered almost on a weekly basis and the petrified community fears the murderer will never be caught. The acclaimed Miami TV-reporter Manolo Bonilla, on location with his crew to shoot a documentary on the issue, prevents a man from getting lynched by an angry mob when he causes a car accident involving a young boy. Whilst in prison, the man provides Bonilla with a lot of detailed information concerning the murders and the reporter quickly becomes obsessed with the idea of catching the killer himself. In exchange for further information, Bonilla promises the man to do an emotional TV-show about his wrongful imprisonment. "Crónicas" benefices from a powerful first half hour and especially the climax sequences are ultimately fascinating and shocking. Unfortunately the middle-section of the film is somewhat sluggish and dull, but at least you can admire the beautiful filming location and the genuinely moving acting performances of the overall unknown cast. The film contains several unsettling images of violence and human misery, but the unconventional ending is far more shocking & disturbing than on screen violence could ever be. And you can even despise the characters for their action, because deep down you realize you'd do exactly the same. This film isn't a masterpiece, but it's definitely a film you won't forget easily.

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. ****

"Crónicas" is an updated, Latinization of Billy Wilder's cynical 1951 film "Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival)," where a tabloid reporter selfishly manipulated an emotional story of a trapped miner.

Where films like "Medium Cool" and "The China Syndrome" showed reporters as heroes getting radicalized by the stories they are covering, writer/director Sebastián Cordero effectively creates a hot, grimy, gritty environment for an ethically-challenged tabloid TV reporter who gets too mired in a serial murder investigation in the slums of Equador that recalls the hysteria and circus around the Atlanta child killings.

The irony of the power of today's ubiquitous media is shown to searing effect, including the power to manipulate it for personal purposes by all sides. The cat and mouse negotiations between the reporter and a questionable source (the enthralling Damián Alcázar) are as tense as those in "The Silence of the Lambs," and in an ugly environs that we can practically smell through the screen.

John Leguizamo is completely believable as a swaggering, self-promoting celebrity TV reporter for a popular show covering scandals across the southern hemisphere, flitting from his Miami base to drug lord hostages in Columbia to salacious murders, in and out of English. We are alternately sympathetic to his efforts and his bouts of conscience, then repelled by him.

He is flanked by somewhat stereotypes of a lanky, battle-hardened cameraman who eagerly focuses on close-ups of violence and gore and an ambitious woman producer who plunges into research and infidelity with equal verve, who utilize the most shiny, high tech communications gear to capitalize on their tunneling through the muck of human nature, though even they finally reach their ethical boundaries.

The focus is kept tightly on the reporter's responsibilities, as the producer comments ruefully: "We got the only honest cop in Latin America." The script and the camera certainly play with us, in edits of slowly revealed information that change our impressions of the facts, and as the reporter tensely tries to both get a scoop and do as much of the right thing as his ambitions allow.

As an intelligent thriller, this film certainly puts a brutal spin on the issue of a reporter protecting his sources, even as the worst of the implications happens off camera.

The background song selections fit the mood, though I have some feeling that the Spanish lyrics had significance.

The English subtitles had some errors.

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.