Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New York International Latino Film Festival

I am attending the Latino Film Festival in New York and I will be posting on the movies that I saw.

Today was my first day and I was able to catch three films:

Off Jackson Avenue - Directed and written by John-Luke Montias

I have to admit that I was prepared to hate this movie, the story dealt with prostitution, drugs and hit men. From the synopsis it sounded so stereotypical of so many Latin themed films. Much to my surprise I really liked this movie. The directing was on point as well as the acting. It is not an easy movie to watch at times but it did try to inject some humor which helped the enjoyment. For the most part, all characters were sympathetic, except for the Albanian pimp, and I am not sure if that was due to the acting or the direction. In the Q&A after the film, the director stated that the movie was shot in a very short time and for a budget of about $200K, and the movie looks much more expensive. The different ethnicities were treated as real people and not stereotypes. This is definitely a movie I would recommend.

Harrison Montgomery - Directed by Daniel Davila

This was another wonderful surprise of a movie. Very realistic while at the same time it had a fantasy feel about it. Seeing veteran actors Martin Landau and Diane Baker was a treat but the real breakout performance was the relatively unknown actor, Octavio Gomez Berrios. He held the movie together and was a joy to watch. This movie compared to "Off Jackson Avenue" had a more Hollywood independent style but very enjoyable.

South of Pico - Written and directed by Ernst Gossner

Of the three movies, this was the one I was most looking forward to seeing and for me, was the least pleasurable. As opposed to the other two movies, this one was more Hollywood casting style. You were always aware that everyone was "acting" whereas in the other movies they were real people. The story and style was reminiscent of the movie "Crash." The ending was disturbing and not easy to watch but the lead up to the ending felt very patchy. A mild recommendation for this movie from me.

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