“The Echo” — or rather, El Eco — is the name of a tiny rural village in Mexico’s Puebla state that sufficiently captivated Mexican-Salvadorean filmmaker Tatiana Huezo into filming it over the course of 18 months, observing its changes in weather, fortune and the temperament of its few, tightly bonded residents in fine, fraught degrees. But there’s more to the title of Huezo’s return to documentary filmmaking — following the major success of her 2021 fiction debut “Prayers for the Stolen” — than a mere marker of place: Examining the unique ties that bind farming families, where everyone’s welfare hangs on the same unkind elements, this exquisitely textured film observes how children’s lives echo those of their parents, repeating for generations on the same constantly inconstant land, until somebody breaks the pattern.
There’s something of an echo, too, between Huezo’s last film and this one, even as they nominally...
There’s something of an echo, too, between Huezo’s last film and this one, even as they nominally...
- 2/17/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
To return to documentary filmmaking after her lauded debut fiction feature “Prayers for the Stolen” (“Noche de Fuego”), Tatiana Huezo laid down a set of parameters to follow.
“I didn’t want to include any interviews, any narration or any voice-over,” she told Variety. “The Echo” (“El Eco”), world premiering at Berlinale’s Encounters sidebar, sometimes feels like a fictional story as a result.
“After ‘Prayers..,’ I felt like returning to the language of the documentary, but most importantly, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, in the smallest details in everyday life,” she mused. Its trailer bows exclusively in Variety.
Research on the docu took some four years. The Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker found the titular village of El Eco in the state of Puebla, a four-hour drive from Mexico City. After visiting several rural schools, she zeroed in on the village, captivated by its name and even more so after...
“I didn’t want to include any interviews, any narration or any voice-over,” she told Variety. “The Echo” (“El Eco”), world premiering at Berlinale’s Encounters sidebar, sometimes feels like a fictional story as a result.
“After ‘Prayers..,’ I felt like returning to the language of the documentary, but most importantly, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, in the smallest details in everyday life,” she mused. Its trailer bows exclusively in Variety.
Research on the docu took some four years. The Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker found the titular village of El Eco in the state of Puebla, a four-hour drive from Mexico City. After visiting several rural schools, she zeroed in on the village, captivated by its name and even more so after...
- 2/16/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
From a distance, like on a zoomed-out map, the South Pacific island of Chiloé looks almost like a peninsula. It nestles cosily into the embrace of the Chilean coastline, separated only by a narrow strait from the overhanging landmass. But as anyone who has been there can tell you, it has an earthy atmosphere very much its own: with its temperate, damp climate, verdant forests and misty fields, Chiloé feels ancient, folkloric and full of hidden mystery. It makes it the perfect setting for Chilean filmmaker Christopher Murray’s “Sorcery,” a meditative tale of anticolonial vengeance that has its basis in fascinating true events in Chilote history, but that wears the skin of a dark fairytale.
It is 1880 on the island, and 13-year-old Rosa is prepping a meal for her employers, a family of devoutly Christian German settlers. Rosa, who has learned to speak German, comes from an indigenous Huilliche background,...
It is 1880 on the island, and 13-year-old Rosa is prepping a meal for her employers, a family of devoutly Christian German settlers. Rosa, who has learned to speak German, comes from an indigenous Huilliche background,...
- 1/30/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
The AcademyThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents The Academy Awards, which is popularly known as the Oscars.Tnm StaffA collage of actors Suriya and KajolActors Suriya and Kajol are among the invitees to join The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organisation has extended an invitation to 397 artists and others to join the organisation in 2022. "Membership selection is based on professional qualifications with an ongoing commitment to representation, inclusion and equity. This year's class of invitees includes 71 Oscar nominees, including 15 winners. The Academy is the organisation which presents The Academy Awards, popularly known as Oscars. Other Indians who made it to the list include filmmakers Reema Kagti, Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas. Indian documentary Writing With Fire, made by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, was recently nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category at the 94th edition of the Academy Awards. The documentary chronicled the rise of Khabar Lahariya,...
- 6/29/2022
- by BNitin
- The News Minute
In an unprecedented move, multi-Oscar nominated American composer and pianist Philip Glass (“The Hours”) has contributed key music to Mexican documentary “Cartas a Distancia” (“Letters from a Distance”) by Juan Carlos Rulfo.
Credit goes to Glass’s decades-long friendship and collaboration with the documentary’s lead composer and music producer Leonardo Heiblum, whose notable list of film credits include some highly acclaimed Latin American films, including “Frida,” “Maria Full of Grace,” “La Jaula de Oro,” Tatiano Huezo’s Cannes hit “Prayers for the Stolen” and Rulfo’s 2006 docu, “In the Pit.”
According to Glass, he and Heiblum met over 20 years ago when the latter worked for Glass’s company Dunvagen Music Publishers in New York. “He is an accomplished composer in his own right, so he eventually moved on to his own projects. Then I began to see him whenever I visited Mexico, and he would stop by for coffee...
Credit goes to Glass’s decades-long friendship and collaboration with the documentary’s lead composer and music producer Leonardo Heiblum, whose notable list of film credits include some highly acclaimed Latin American films, including “Frida,” “Maria Full of Grace,” “La Jaula de Oro,” Tatiano Huezo’s Cannes hit “Prayers for the Stolen” and Rulfo’s 2006 docu, “In the Pit.”
According to Glass, he and Heiblum met over 20 years ago when the latter worked for Glass’s company Dunvagen Music Publishers in New York. “He is an accomplished composer in his own right, so he eventually moved on to his own projects. Then I began to see him whenever I visited Mexico, and he would stop by for coffee...
- 8/9/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
The unforgettable final shot of Tatiana Huezo’s last film, the songlike documentary “Tempestad,” is the silhouette of a figure swimming in blue water – an amputee, missing one of her legs from the knee down. Combining grace and trauma, the image is also striking because of its perspective: She’s floating but, seen from below, from down in the soundless depths just where the water starts to get murky, it looks like she’s flying. With Un Certain Regard title “Prayers for the Stolen,” .
Seen through Huezo’s eyes, the hollow in the earth that Rita (Mayra Batalla) and her pretty 8-year-old daughter Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) are digging in the ground near their scruffy house’s front door is a grave and a womb, a trap and a refuge. It is designed to fit Ana’s little frame snugly, and the girl has already been...
Seen through Huezo’s eyes, the hollow in the earth that Rita (Mayra Batalla) and her pretty 8-year-old daughter Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) are digging in the ground near their scruffy house’s front door is a grave and a womb, a trap and a refuge. It is designed to fit Ana’s little frame snugly, and the girl has already been...
- 7/22/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Praised for its immersive approach to mapping out a drummer’s confrontation with hearing loss, writer-director Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” now contending for six Academy Awards, features a singularly story-driven use of sound.
Part of that sonic alchemy proudly bears a “Made in Mexico” stamp. The film is nominated for best sound, and three of the nominated artisans are Mexican re-recording mixers Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, and Carlos Cortés Navarrete. Together they worked alongside fellow nominees Nicolas Becker and Phillip Bladh to fine-tune the sonic palette. The Mexican trio lent their seasoned skills, honed over many years working on homegrown productions and the occasional international job, across multiple stages of the film’s post-production journey.
Though all of them studied in Europe or the United States, given the limited availability of sound-focused education in their homeland during their formative period, they returned to Mexico to carve out their careers.
Part of that sonic alchemy proudly bears a “Made in Mexico” stamp. The film is nominated for best sound, and three of the nominated artisans are Mexican re-recording mixers Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, and Carlos Cortés Navarrete. Together they worked alongside fellow nominees Nicolas Becker and Phillip Bladh to fine-tune the sonic palette. The Mexican trio lent their seasoned skills, honed over many years working on homegrown productions and the occasional international job, across multiple stages of the film’s post-production journey.
Though all of them studied in Europe or the United States, given the limited availability of sound-focused education in their homeland during their formative period, they returned to Mexico to carve out their careers.
- 3/23/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety Film + TV
“Forgiven but not forgotten” is a platitude we routinely use to end disputes both petty and grievous, but it’s the reverse outcome — the mass forgetting of crimes and conflicts never truly resolved — that itches away at a post-Franco Spain in “The Silence of Others.” Soberly chronicling the ongoing legal battle of General Franco’s victims and their descendants to exhume (in some cases quite literally) the skeletons of an ugly past protected by Parliament, Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo’s straightforward but emotionally acute documentary works as both a thorough history lesson and a work of contemporary activism. Much-garlanded on the documentary festival circuit, it should benefit from the arthouse imprimatur of executive producers Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar when it opens theatrically on May 8, before finding a wider audience on streaming platforms.
Bahar and Carracedo’s film boasts less stylistic brio than you might expect given the Almodóvars’ backing,...
Bahar and Carracedo’s film boasts less stylistic brio than you might expect given the Almodóvars’ backing,...
- 4/24/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The annual Tibet House benefit is a New York City musical tradition, always well-curated by composer and downtown arts ambassador emeritus Philip Glass. The organization’s mission is to preserve, protect, promote and advance Tibetan culture — and with its focus on peace (inner and outer), meditation, healing and happiness, that mission couldn’t be more timely. So the event, billed as the 32nd annual (give or take a few; no one seems to recall exactly), was especially welcome this year. And as usual, the music captured the spirit of the moment.
- 2/8/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” Colombia’s official entry to the Oscars’ Foreign-Language category, took home the best picture Fenix Award in a glittering ceremony held in Mexico City on Nov. 7. Its lead actress, Carmiña Martínez, clinched the best actress Fenix.
However, Argentine period drama “Zama” by Lucrecia Martel snagged the most awards, including cinematography, editing, sound and art design.
In a nod to the boom in premium TV series, the Fenix have included included television nominees since last year. Alex Pina’s Atresmedia-produced Netflix heist thriller series, “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”), nabbed best series while Gael Garcia Bernal and Kyzza Terraza’s “Here on Earth” won best ensemble cast for a family drama-thriller series which toplines some of the most renowned actors in the Spanish-speaking world, such as Mexico’s Daniel Giménez Cacho, Chile’s Luis Gnecco and Spain’s Ariadna Gil.
Marcelo Martinez...
However, Argentine period drama “Zama” by Lucrecia Martel snagged the most awards, including cinematography, editing, sound and art design.
In a nod to the boom in premium TV series, the Fenix have included included television nominees since last year. Alex Pina’s Atresmedia-produced Netflix heist thriller series, “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”), nabbed best series while Gael Garcia Bernal and Kyzza Terraza’s “Here on Earth” won best ensemble cast for a family drama-thriller series which toplines some of the most renowned actors in the Spanish-speaking world, such as Mexico’s Daniel Giménez Cacho, Chile’s Luis Gnecco and Spain’s Ariadna Gil.
Marcelo Martinez...
- 11/8/2018
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Tempestad has been selected as Mexico’s official entry to the 90th Academy Awards in the foreign-language film category, and was also recently nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Documentary. It was also the winner of the Best Documentary at the last edition of the Cinema Tropical Awards, and its Dp Ernesto Pardo was nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers Award.
Its U.S. theatrical premiere is October 20 at Anthology Film Archives who is co-presenting with Cinema Tropical, its distributor.
Utilizing the direct testimony of two women whose lives have been torn apart by the cartel-fueled terror racking Mexico in the 21st century, Tempestad is an impressionistic portrait — at once lyrical and shattering — of the human cost of the country’s lawlessness.
This extraordinary film by Salvadorian filmmaker Tatiana Huezo, whose Ariel Award (among others) winning doc was The Tiniest Place/ El lugar más pequeño, will shake...
Its U.S. theatrical premiere is October 20 at Anthology Film Archives who is co-presenting with Cinema Tropical, its distributor.
Utilizing the direct testimony of two women whose lives have been torn apart by the cartel-fueled terror racking Mexico in the 21st century, Tempestad is an impressionistic portrait — at once lyrical and shattering — of the human cost of the country’s lawlessness.
This extraordinary film by Salvadorian filmmaker Tatiana Huezo, whose Ariel Award (among others) winning doc was The Tiniest Place/ El lugar más pequeño, will shake...
- 10/4/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie” may be getting Oscar buzz, but it’s not his only film up for contention. His Spanish-language picture “Neruda,” starring Luis Gnecco and Gael García Bernal, has also been well received by critics, especially at the 2016 Fenix Awards — it took home four prizes, including Best Picture and Best Editing.
The drama, which is also Chile’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign-Language Film, tells the story of poet Pablo Neruda (Gnecco), arguably the most famous communist in post-wwii Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced into hiding with tenacious police inspector Oscar Peluchoneau (Bernal) hot on his trail.
Read More: How The Fenix Awards Became Mexico’s Secret Weapon at the Oscars
The third annual Fenix Ibero-American Film Awards took place on December 7 in Mexico City and honored the best in film from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Another big hit of the night...
The drama, which is also Chile’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign-Language Film, tells the story of poet Pablo Neruda (Gnecco), arguably the most famous communist in post-wwii Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced into hiding with tenacious police inspector Oscar Peluchoneau (Bernal) hot on his trail.
Read More: How The Fenix Awards Became Mexico’s Secret Weapon at the Oscars
The third annual Fenix Ibero-American Film Awards took place on December 7 in Mexico City and honored the best in film from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Another big hit of the night...
- 12/8/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
'The Peanuts Movie': 2016 Best Original Score Oscar contender along with 111 other titles. Oscar 2016: Best Original Score contenders range from 'Mad Max: Fury Road' to 'The Peanuts Movie' Earlier this month (Dec. '15), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made public the list of 112 film scores eligible for the 2016 Oscar in the Best Original Score category. As found in the Academy's press release, “a Reminder List of works submitted in the Original Score category will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the Music Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award.” The release adds that “to be eligible, the original score must be a substantial body of music that serves as original dramatic underscoring, and must...
- 12/24/2015
- by Mont. Steve
- Alt Film Guide
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 112 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2015 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 88th Academy Awards.
The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in alphabetical order by film title:
“Adult Beginners,” Marcelo Zarvos, composer
“The Age of Adaline,” Rob Simonsen, composer
“Altered Minds,” Edmund Choi, composer
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” Mark Mothersbaugh, composer
“Anomalisa,” Carter Burwell, composer
“Ant-Man,” Christophe Beck, composer
“Beasts of No Nation,” Dan Romer, composer
“The Big Short,” Nicholas Britell, composer
“Black Mass,” Tom Holkenborg, composer
“Bridge of Spies,” Thomas Newman, composer
“Brooklyn,” Michael Brook, composer
“Burnt,” Rob Simonsen, composer
“By the Sea,” Gabriel Yared, composer
“Carol,” Carter Burwell, composer
“Cartel Land,” H. Scott Salinas and Jackson Greenberg, composers
“Chi-Raq,” Terence Blanchard, composer
“Cinderella,” Patrick Doyle, composer
“Coming Home,” Qigang Chen, composer
“Concussion,...
The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below, in alphabetical order by film title:
“Adult Beginners,” Marcelo Zarvos, composer
“The Age of Adaline,” Rob Simonsen, composer
“Altered Minds,” Edmund Choi, composer
“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” Mark Mothersbaugh, composer
“Anomalisa,” Carter Burwell, composer
“Ant-Man,” Christophe Beck, composer
“Beasts of No Nation,” Dan Romer, composer
“The Big Short,” Nicholas Britell, composer
“Black Mass,” Tom Holkenborg, composer
“Bridge of Spies,” Thomas Newman, composer
“Brooklyn,” Michael Brook, composer
“Burnt,” Rob Simonsen, composer
“By the Sea,” Gabriel Yared, composer
“Carol,” Carter Burwell, composer
“Cartel Land,” H. Scott Salinas and Jackson Greenberg, composers
“Chi-Raq,” Terence Blanchard, composer
“Cinderella,” Patrick Doyle, composer
“Coming Home,” Qigang Chen, composer
“Concussion,...
- 12/17/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The first Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards, highlighting and celebrating cinema made in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal as well as applauding the professionals involved was inaugurated by Cinema23 this October 30 and held its closing night party in México City's Jumex Museum, named after the Lopez family’s fruit juice empire, and commissioned by Eugenio Lopez, the dynastic scion whose intention is to leave an edifice to Mexico City that dignifies his family name. This 21st-century prince is the sole patron of the new Museo Jumex, Latin America’s largest contemporary art museum, designed by the British architect David Chipperfield and just across the street from hourglass-shaped Museo Soumaya, opened in 2011 by the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú to display his own collection. Worth a trip to Mexico alone just to view the private Jumex collection of Mexican art, to attend the spectacular closing night party topping off the new annual, independent award ceremony which took place at the iconic 1918 Teatro de la Ciudad was an experience of a lifetime.
After an exclusive dinner for the nominees around 11 Pm, the great celebration began. Inspired by Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important holidays in Mexico, the party was decorated with elements inspired by this tradition such as "papel picado," and walls decorated with skulls. The vibrant orange color of hundreds of cempasúchil flowers (Marigolds) adorned the hall where more than a thousand guests, among them many film professional, singers and other important figures from across Iberoamerica, attended the celebration organized by Grupo Modelo the brewery in Mexico now owned by the Belgian-Brazilian company Anheuser-Busch InBev, which holds 63% of the Mexican beer market and exports beer to most countries of the world, whose export brands include my own favorite beers, Corona and Pacífico. I was proud to be invited to attend and to be part of the advisory council of Cinema23, founder of this annual Fenix Awards celebration of the art of cinema along with the comcomitant commercial success of Iberoamerican cinema.
Attending the awards and the post-award party were actors such as Alice Braga, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Claudia Talancón, Alfonso Herrera, Bárbara Mori, Brandon López, Camila Selser, Cecilia Suárez, Elena Anaya, Ernesto Alterio, Erick Elías, Ilse Salas, Irene Azuela, Johanna Murillo, José María Yazpik, José María and Pedro de Tavira, Juan Manuel Bernal, Karen Martínez, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Maribel Verdú, Martha Higareda, Maya Zapata and Ximena Ayala; filmmakers Fernando Eimbcke, Gary Alazraki, Jonás Cuarón, Lorenzo Hagerman, Manolo Caro, Natalia Beristáin and Rigoberto Perezcano; musicians Leo Heiblum, Kevin Johansen, León Larregui and Sergio Acosta from rock band Zoé and Leonor Watling, Jesús Navarro, vocalist of pop band Reik; socialites as Rafael Micha, Jorge Gorozpe, Memo Martínez and Max Villegas; fashion designer Oscar Madrazo and jewelry designer Mariana Villarea. They and the other attendees enjoyed a night in which cinema was the most important guest.
In the venue's lower level, Sonido Apokalitzin's beats enhanced the experience with cumbias, salsas and iconic songs from several Iberoamerican countries. Monterrey DJ Toy Selectah also entertained the guests with his musical selection. Upstairs, Sergio and Andres from famous rock band Zoé delighted everyone with their music just before they enjoyed Julian Placencia's DJ set.
With this event the first edition of the Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards came to an end. The event brought together hundreds of figures from the Iberoamerican film community who celebrated the well-deserved recognition to their work and dedication. At the same time the event served to strengthen relationships among the diverse industries and will continuously help forge the region's identity.
After an exclusive dinner for the nominees around 11 Pm, the great celebration began. Inspired by Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of the most important holidays in Mexico, the party was decorated with elements inspired by this tradition such as "papel picado," and walls decorated with skulls. The vibrant orange color of hundreds of cempasúchil flowers (Marigolds) adorned the hall where more than a thousand guests, among them many film professional, singers and other important figures from across Iberoamerica, attended the celebration organized by Grupo Modelo the brewery in Mexico now owned by the Belgian-Brazilian company Anheuser-Busch InBev, which holds 63% of the Mexican beer market and exports beer to most countries of the world, whose export brands include my own favorite beers, Corona and Pacífico. I was proud to be invited to attend and to be part of the advisory council of Cinema23, founder of this annual Fenix Awards celebration of the art of cinema along with the comcomitant commercial success of Iberoamerican cinema.
Attending the awards and the post-award party were actors such as Alice Braga, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Claudia Talancón, Alfonso Herrera, Bárbara Mori, Brandon López, Camila Selser, Cecilia Suárez, Elena Anaya, Ernesto Alterio, Erick Elías, Ilse Salas, Irene Azuela, Johanna Murillo, José María Yazpik, José María and Pedro de Tavira, Juan Manuel Bernal, Karen Martínez, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Maribel Verdú, Martha Higareda, Maya Zapata and Ximena Ayala; filmmakers Fernando Eimbcke, Gary Alazraki, Jonás Cuarón, Lorenzo Hagerman, Manolo Caro, Natalia Beristáin and Rigoberto Perezcano; musicians Leo Heiblum, Kevin Johansen, León Larregui and Sergio Acosta from rock band Zoé and Leonor Watling, Jesús Navarro, vocalist of pop band Reik; socialites as Rafael Micha, Jorge Gorozpe, Memo Martínez and Max Villegas; fashion designer Oscar Madrazo and jewelry designer Mariana Villarea. They and the other attendees enjoyed a night in which cinema was the most important guest.
In the venue's lower level, Sonido Apokalitzin's beats enhanced the experience with cumbias, salsas and iconic songs from several Iberoamerican countries. Monterrey DJ Toy Selectah also entertained the guests with his musical selection. Upstairs, Sergio and Andres from famous rock band Zoé delighted everyone with their music just before they enjoyed Julian Placencia's DJ set.
With this event the first edition of the Fenix Iberoamerican Film Awards came to an end. The event brought together hundreds of figures from the Iberoamerican film community who celebrated the well-deserved recognition to their work and dedication. At the same time the event served to strengthen relationships among the diverse industries and will continuously help forge the region's identity.
- 11/17/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Well-told, well-shot and featuring a strong, but restrained and internalized performance from actress Abbie Cornish, director David Riker's "The Girl" is a mannered and in-the-pocket indie drama that might be a total subdued winner if it weren't for its dubious political ideologies, an irony considering the film's DNA is clearly built on humanist tendencies. While the Australian Cornish does have mild issues with sticking the landing on her Texas accent, it's her meatiest role since the deeply underrated "Bright Star" and lesser-seen, but no less valuable indies like "Somersault" and "Candy" (the latter featuring her going toe-to-toe with Heath Ledger and giving as good as she got) and she makes the most of it.
She leads the pic as the emotionally distraught and financially destitute Ashley (played quietly with an internal smoldering), and as the narrative unfolds through the mundane, we learn that her introverted angst and suffering stems...
She leads the pic as the emotionally distraught and financially destitute Ashley (played quietly with an internal smoldering), and as the narrative unfolds through the mundane, we learn that her introverted angst and suffering stems...
- 4/22/2012
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
PARK CITY -- Based on a horrific expose of an international sex slave network, "Trade" is an earnest attempt to dramatize the network of Internet sex "tunnels." Unfortunately, the film's horrific and important subject matter is distilled into a lackluster lump of generic buddy-movie/road-picture components. "Trade" certainly will incite early boxoffice based on its provocative subject matter, but this humdrum film does little justice to the young girls who are prey to these bands of international slime.
Plotting along from the squalor of Mexico City, where brigands capture girls for delivery to New Jersey where they will be auctioned off on an Internet site, "Trade" lumbers along a plot course that, basically, explicates what a good documentary filmmaker could do in half the time and with considerably more of an emotional wallop.
The narrative centers on the cruel abduction of a Polish girl (Alicja Bachleda)and a 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) whose combative brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a trans-America trail to find his younger sister. Careening into the U.S., Jorge runs smack dab into a U.S. lawman, Ray (Kevin Kline), who is on some sort of "insurance" case. Further down the road a piece, we learn Ray is an emotionally wounded cop on a personal mission.
While Kline bravely undertakes the role of lawman with a vendetta, walking as stiff as Dirty Harry and emoting as minimally as Chuck Norris, he never gets a handle on the role. Bathetic phone calls to his wife about their cat convince Jorge that he's dealing with a candy-ass gringo. At this juncture, "Trade" careens into battling-buddy territory as the macho Jorge and the stoic lawman trade barbs, complain about the other's music and eventually bond.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Jose Rivera's banter and dialogue is as leaden as his drab expositional structuring. The dialogue is so uninspired it's as if listening to someone reading subtitles. Similarly, Marco Kreuzpaintner's slow-footed direction never puts the pedal to the metal; in essence, this "important" road picture/chase/buddy movie is devoid of visual accelerants. It is further slowed by editor Hansjorg Weissbrich's tentative braking -- car driving and other padding consistently defuse the story line.
The musical score by Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum is in sync with the film's overall lackluster aesthetics: The music is dreary and listless, more apt as a midwinter Scandinavian overture to the tundra than a torrid expose of international sex slavery.
On the plus side, Ramos' charismatic and charged portrayal of the avenging brother is the film's highlight: Ramos packs energy and fire, combustions that this subject matter deserves. Plaudits also to Gaitan as the waifish Mexican girl who endures unspeakable degradations, as well as Bachleda for her sympathetic and steely performance as the abducted Polish beauty.
Unfortunately, Ray's cat cannot overcome the filmmaker's sloppy cutesiness, and we're left with a final, comic fillip that seems writ from "Walker, Texas Ranger".
TRADE
Lionsgate
A Centropolis Entertainment and VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Producers: Roland Emmerich, Rosilyn Heller
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Story: Peter Landesman, Jose Rivera
Based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Girls Next Door" by: Peter Landesman
Executive producers: Ashok Amritraj, Robert Leger, Tom Ortenberg, Michael Wimer, Nick Hamson, Peter Landesman, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography: Daniel Gottschalk
Production designer: Bernt Capra
Editor: Hansjorg Weissbrich
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Cast:
Ray: Kevin Kline
Jorge: Cesar Ramos
Veronica: Alicja Bachleda
Adriana: Paulina Gaitan
Manuelo: Marco Perez
Laura: Kate del Castillo
Hank Jefferson: Tim Reid
Vadim Youchenko: Pasha Lynchnikoff
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Plotting along from the squalor of Mexico City, where brigands capture girls for delivery to New Jersey where they will be auctioned off on an Internet site, "Trade" lumbers along a plot course that, basically, explicates what a good documentary filmmaker could do in half the time and with considerably more of an emotional wallop.
The narrative centers on the cruel abduction of a Polish girl (Alicja Bachleda)and a 13-year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) whose combative brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a trans-America trail to find his younger sister. Careening into the U.S., Jorge runs smack dab into a U.S. lawman, Ray (Kevin Kline), who is on some sort of "insurance" case. Further down the road a piece, we learn Ray is an emotionally wounded cop on a personal mission.
While Kline bravely undertakes the role of lawman with a vendetta, walking as stiff as Dirty Harry and emoting as minimally as Chuck Norris, he never gets a handle on the role. Bathetic phone calls to his wife about their cat convince Jorge that he's dealing with a candy-ass gringo. At this juncture, "Trade" careens into battling-buddy territory as the macho Jorge and the stoic lawman trade barbs, complain about the other's music and eventually bond.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Jose Rivera's banter and dialogue is as leaden as his drab expositional structuring. The dialogue is so uninspired it's as if listening to someone reading subtitles. Similarly, Marco Kreuzpaintner's slow-footed direction never puts the pedal to the metal; in essence, this "important" road picture/chase/buddy movie is devoid of visual accelerants. It is further slowed by editor Hansjorg Weissbrich's tentative braking -- car driving and other padding consistently defuse the story line.
The musical score by Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum is in sync with the film's overall lackluster aesthetics: The music is dreary and listless, more apt as a midwinter Scandinavian overture to the tundra than a torrid expose of international sex slavery.
On the plus side, Ramos' charismatic and charged portrayal of the avenging brother is the film's highlight: Ramos packs energy and fire, combustions that this subject matter deserves. Plaudits also to Gaitan as the waifish Mexican girl who endures unspeakable degradations, as well as Bachleda for her sympathetic and steely performance as the abducted Polish beauty.
Unfortunately, Ray's cat cannot overcome the filmmaker's sloppy cutesiness, and we're left with a final, comic fillip that seems writ from "Walker, Texas Ranger".
TRADE
Lionsgate
A Centropolis Entertainment and VIP Medienfonds 4 production
Credits:
Producers: Roland Emmerich, Rosilyn Heller
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Screenwriter: Jose Rivera
Story: Peter Landesman, Jose Rivera
Based on the New York Times Magazine article "The Girls Next Door" by: Peter Landesman
Executive producers: Ashok Amritraj, Robert Leger, Tom Ortenberg, Michael Wimer, Nick Hamson, Peter Landesman, Lars Sylvest
Director of photography: Daniel Gottschalk
Production designer: Bernt Capra
Editor: Hansjorg Weissbrich
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Costume designer: Carol Oditz
Cast:
Ray: Kevin Kline
Jorge: Cesar Ramos
Veronica: Alicja Bachleda
Adriana: Paulina Gaitan
Manuelo: Marco Perez
Laura: Kate del Castillo
Hank Jefferson: Tim Reid
Vadim Youchenko: Pasha Lynchnikoff
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.