Santa Cristal

Considering this is an indie film from Puerto Rico and made on almost no budget, Santa Cristal is the best Puerto Rican film I've seen so far...it will probably not be nominated for an Oscar (as was the dull-as-hell Lo Que Le Paso A Santiago, which earned a Best Foreign Film nomination in 1980-something) but it will go down as at least a cult classic due to its cleverly written and often hilariously heavy-handed satire of Puerto Rican society. Some people won't get the joke, and those will usually be the people the film takes aim at. Modesto Lacen turns out a credible performance as soap-opera actor turned prophet Tomas Cruseiro, and Sara Jarque does a great job of portraying the frustrated muckraking radio talk-show host Laura Setti. Be on the lookout for renowned PR comic actors like Adrian Garcia, Raquel Montero and the legendary Sunshine Logrono in small roles. Also of note is local actor William Piedra, who displays a good grasp of parody and comic timing as moronic disc jockey Sex Machine. Bear in mind the film is in Spanish and some familiarity with Puerto Rican society will help you grasp the movie better...hopefully a version with English subtitles is in the works.

I was lucky enough to actually be able to see this small independent film. Santa Cristal is about a fictional island that suffers a crisis when an actor turned new age guru announces that the world will end in a short period of time. This creates a fever pitch of panic in the island when another Christian religious leader speaks out against this. In this middle of this is a reporter trying desperately to speak rationally, a prostitute trying to take care of her autistic sister, a man betrayed by the woman he loves, and even a homeless man dressed as bunny (yeah I'm serious).

Santa Cristal is a social commentary on the society of Puerto Rico (when local radio stations hold a rave at the end of the world), Religion (the opening scene is the most shocking thing i have scene in the cinema) and big business (the funniest part is when an older man is trying to unsuscribe to a horrible telephone plan that his wife was tricked into subscribing to). It doesn't hold back or sugar coat anything.

Its shocking, Its hysterical, Its controversial and hopefully more people will see it because it is something the local Puertorican cinema has never seen before.