Paraiso

I have worked in the industry for 20 years now and have had the privilege of working with enormously talented people. I saw PARAISO recently at the 2009 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, founded by Oscar-nominated actor-director Edward James Olmos. I would characterize the director of PARAISO, whose work I didn't previously know, as amongst the finest. Director Leon Ichaso elicits stunning performances from his cast of actors. I did some research into the making of the film, which I loved, and found that the lead was a recent immigrant from Cuba, an unknown young actor. The performance Mr. Ichaso elicited from his lead was commanding and reminiscent of the work of a favorite of mine, of everybody's really, Gael Garcia Bernal. The actor in fact bears some resemblance to Mr. Bernal. The director of this film made a courageous, I feel, choice in portraying a newly immigrated Cuban immigrant in a dark way, i.e. not every immigrant who manages to escape from Cuba is deserving of our sympathy. And yet, where I feel Mr. Ichaso succeeded brilliantly, was his ability to make his unlikeable protagonist somehow sympathetic. It takes a master filmmaker to pull that off: make you feel for someone you should otherwise not care about. The film, I also learned, was shot for 30,000 dollars. Incredible what was accomplished with so little money. The films is virtually an embarrassment to those who spend 10 or 20 times the budget to make such a film happen. Many people will label a film a melodrama to facilely dismiss a film. Oh my God, it's a melodrama! In fact, melodrama is a genre that is tried and true and has led to box office success and even critical acclaim. When something is done well, it's done well, and that's what's happened here. The film takes us into the Miami Cuban community of immigrants in a way that made me really feel and understand that community, maybe, for the first time. So here director is successful in what films need to do: takes us through a journey or place or community into which we've never been and portray it truthfully. The look of the film is gritty and real and not overdone so as to allow the subject to speak loudly and poignantly for itself. The film is suspenseful throughout and the choices made by the protagonist are disturbing and stirring. Characterizations were not only affecting, but characters make surprising choices at every turn. Particularly compelling was the character of an aging man who because of his need to feel he's had a greater legacy in life than he's had, believes a legacy, not his own, to in fact be his own. I have urged my colleagues and friends to see this film ASAP. Thanks to the director for taking me deep into a world to which I've never been. Bravo. And brilliant choice on the part of the film festival for choosing this great work.

I saw this film at the NY Latino Film Festival. I was very excited to see a film about the Cuban community in Miami, a subject that's never really been done. In fact, about a quarter of the way in, I even thought it was the best film about Cuban Americans I'd ever seen. I loved the way it captured the Miami culture, and both the older and younger generation of Cuban exiles, and the different interests in both circles. But then the movie just spirals out of control.

First off, I absolutely HATED the way the film was shot and edited. I have no problem when movies are shot hand-held as it adds a gritty realism, but there were times when the camera WOULD NOT STOP SHAKING. Seriously, get a tripod! Then there's the issue of jump-cuts. Conversations are put together in choppy ways with no visual continuity. I guess this was a stylistic choice to disorient the audience, but all it does is annoy. One scene in particular where Ivan and Tamara are fighting in a parking garage is so full of intentional jump-cuts that it almost made me want to walk out. It's an example of how a movie's attempt at "style" is so distracting that you wish for just a linear narrative.

But then there's the story. As I said, I enjoyed how it started, but without revealing too much, I'll just say that soon Ivan's shady and self-destructive behavior becomes more and more the focal point of the story. I was surprised by a few brutal deaths, including one that made no sense, and then a final twist is revealed about Ivan that brings the whole thing to a halt. After the movie ended, I felt absolutely nothing for the characters.

I'm disappointed that the filmmakers decided to take the route of such brooding yet ultimately shallow melodrama. There were so many themes that this premise could have explored: how identities are formed in a foreign country, the ambivalent and ambiguous feelings the characters have towards both countries, the definition of a family and whether or not two people can form a father-son relationship as adults. Instead, all these themes are glossed over in place of an ugly, negative story about drugs, sex, and self-destructive behavior. WHY? Why on Earth did the filmmakers choose to tell this particular story? If you took away the whole Cuban-American angle, you would be left with a generic thriller.

What saddens me the most is that the acting is great, the cinematography looks great (when it isn't so shaky) and I learned later that the whole movie was made for just $30,000 and a 10 person crew! That's amazing! They made a good-looking, competent feature with the minimum, and with the right story it could really have been an accomplishment. Instead they made a trite melodrama. Hopefully next time they'll take some money from that budget to buy a tripod.