I Like It Like That

Lisette Linares (Luna Lauren Velez) and Chino Linares (Jon Seda) are married with three kids in the Bronx. While he's in jail, she gets a job as an assistant to music agent Stephen Price (Griffin Dunne). Magdalena Soto (Lisa Vidal) insists that Chino is her baby's daddy. Chino's mother Rosaria Linares (Rita Moreno) hates Lisette.

Everybody is yelling. It's all very stereotypical Puerto Rican New York City. It takes a little while to acclimatize. Eventually it develops a plot which is more than just everybody yelling. At that point, these characters become real characters. The family dysfunction is a little funny and rather compelling especially for Chino and his son.

I really enjoyed this movie when I saw it in the theatre 10 years ago. It had a real fresh quality to it, and you really rooted for the main characters. I was searching for this on imdb, and then looked at its low rating, which is inexplicable to me. And then, I saw that a large group -- perhaps the largest single plurality - voted this a 1 out of 10. That's just a crime to rate is that low.

This film has terrific acting, great characters and a couple - and their young son - who you just root for. Add to that a strong supporting ensemble, and I would unashamedly rate it a 9 out of 10. i do have to see it again, but I remember just really 'digging' this film!

I'm frankly surprised at the generally low opinion of this film. I saw it and liked it a lot. I thought it did an excellent job of hitting a very realistic tone--no Hollywood glitz or schmaltz here. Instead, we have well-scripted characters with real-life problems, and all of the pathos and humour that comes with them. This movie is alternately touching and hilarious in very effective and "true" ways, and I admire the guts it took to not give this movie a fairy-tale ending. We have no miraculous resolution, but instead a hard-fought and bittersweet partial reconciliation. The acting and writing here carry a good film to a satisfying conclusion. I'm tempted to vote higher than I really feel to boost this movie's overall rating, which I feel is undeserved.

"I Like it Like That" is one of those rare gems of cinema that portrays life for peoples of color with all of the absolute humanness so often lacking from more mainstream films. While I thoroughly enjoyed every actor's performance in this film, no one's performance was as effective and affecting as Jesse Borrego's portrayal of "Alexis", Lisette's (Lauren Velez) transvestite brother. This character offered a rare and realistic portrayal of an individual that is typically viewed only from a safe distance. While I definitely prefer Jesse Borrego as a man, his performance as "Alexis" showed a depth that few actors ever accomplish. In addition to his sterling performance as "Tudee" in "Follow Me Home", his portrayal in this film convinced me of his tremendous range. He is, without question, one of the most underrated actors of our time. I enthusiastically recommend this film to any and everyone.

Lauren Velez makes a strong screen debut in this little flick about a "dis"-functional Hispanic couple married with kids in the Bronx. "I Like It Like That" is a not too serious charcter-driven, dialogue-intensive film which floats somewhere between sardonic comedy and visceral drama as it looks at the life of the Velez and Seda characters who spend most of their time sorting through a variety of woes with a yell first and think later strategy. An okay flick on most levels, this film tends to wear itself out after a while becoming a sort of monotonic drone of screaming, swearing, and throwing things.