Remezcla

REVIEW: Chile’s Oscar Entry Is a Cautionary Tale on How the Far-Right Politics of the Past Still Affects the Present

Carlos Aguilar — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 19:27:25 +0000

Far-right politics in Latin America has evolved from its anti-Communist days into a reactionary ideology poisoned with xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism, not unlike what’s currently proliferating across the globe. Araña (Spider), a new politically minded drama from director Andrés Wood (Machuca, Violeta se fue a los cielos), tracks the fascist doctrine back to 1970s Chile

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REVIEW: ‘Nuestras Madres’ Is a Somber Drama on the Lasting Emotional Impact of Guatemala’s Civil War

Kiko Martinez — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 23:29:13 +0000

How does someone move on with their life when so much of their past is left unresolved? It’s a question raised and, unfortunately, unanswered in Nuestras madres (Our Mothers), a lightweight film on a serious subject that deserved a more absorbing and expansive portrayal. Coproduced by the countries of Belgium and Guatemala (Our Mothers is

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REVIEW: Bolivia’s Oscar Entry Is a Poetic Look at a Father’s Complicated Grief After Losing His Gay Son

Kiko Martinez — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:12:40 +0000

A quote from late American author and LGBTQ activist Paul Monette (Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story) opens the emotionally resonate drama Tu me manques and sets up the heartbreaking conflict audiences will see play out in a story about a father coming to terms with his gay son’s life after his death. “Go

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REVIEW: Costa Rica’s Oscar Entry Is a Sympathetic Look at a Woman Unraveling in the Face of Motherhood

Monica Castillo — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 22:02:24 +0000

In many traditional Latin American families, women are responsible for the kids, cleaning, cooking and so much more. Their husbands offer little help in this regard, their chores are a bit more singular: make money. In Antonella Sudasassi’s El despertar de las hormigas (The Awakening of the Ants), these gendered expectations prove to be too

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REVIEW: Brazil’s Oscar Entry Is an Intoxicating Drama About an Unbreakable Sisterly Bond & Soul-Crushing Patriarchy

Carlos Aguilar — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 20:25:03 +0000

Scored with the sounds of the rainforest, Karim Aïnouz’s exuberant melodrama A vida invisível de Eurídice Gusmão (Invisible Life) casts a tropical spell of soul-stirring proportions as it maps the yearslong trajectory of how archaic patriarchal attitudes tampered with an indestructible sisterhood in 1950s Rio de Janeiro. Reworked from Martha Batalha’s 2016 novel, this tantalizing

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REVIEW: Argentina’s Oscar Entry ‘La Odisea de los Giles’ Is a Heist Movie Where the Poor Steal Their Money Back From the Rich

Beatrice Loayza — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 20:05:27 +0000

It has been a busy year for films about class uprising. From Parasite to Hustlers, the running theme of working class folks fighting back against privileged elites resonates with audiences increasingly attuned to growing economic divides all over the world. With La odisea de los giles (Heroic Losers), Argentina joins the mix with its own

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REVIEW: Panamanian Movie ‘Todos Cambiamos’ Is About a Trans Woman Tired of Living a Double Life

Kiko Martinez — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 18:37:26 +0000

In the last 20 years, American moviegoers have increasingly been introduced to feature films centered on transgender characters struggling with their gender identities. From real-life narratives like 1999’s drama Boys Don’t Cry and 2015’s The Danish Girl to original stories like the 2015 indie dramedy Tangerine, these stories are beginning to find their place in

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REVIEW: ‘La Mala Noche’ Is an Empowering Drama About a Woman Forced Into Sex Work

Monica Castillo — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:12:28 +0000

Dana’s existence is a lonely one, and it’s perhaps one of the first things you’ll notice about her in La mala noche (The Longest Night), Gabriela Calvache’s unflinchingly bleak drama. Dana (Noëlle Schönwald) is slender and pretty, but within minutes of the movie’s beginning, she is already using drugs to help her through a tiring

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REVIEW: ‘Un Traductor’ Is a Moving Tale About a Cuban Man Assigned to Help Chernobyl Victims

Monica Castillo — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 23:02:14 +0000

It’s the late 1980s in Havana, Cuba. The country is still cozy with the U.S.S.R. when it accepted an unexpected import from its Soviet ally: children, sick and dying from radiation poisoning in the aftermath of Chernobyl. In order to cope with the influx of non-Spanish speakers, the government suspends the Russian Department of Literature

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REVIEW: Dominican Movie ‘El Proyeccionista’ Follows a Weary Man Who Manages a Traveling Cinema

Beatrice Loayza — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 22:03:56 +0000

With the growing threat that streaming services and monolithic franchises pose to our cinematic heritage, José María Cabral’s El proyeccionista (The Projectionist) comes as a timely entreaty for the sanctity of tradition. The ways it goes about paying homage to the pleasures of celluloid, however, are innovative, unconventional and potentially off-putting for those in search

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