Does the real Puerto Rico appear in Angel Manuel Soto's LA GRANJA? Well, sort of...

Purporting to give us "the real thing" -- Puerto Rico as it was and still is post-economic collapse -- the 2015 film from Angel Manuel Soto entitled LA GRANJA (The Farm) turns out to be way too interested in the sex and drug life of its protagonists than it is of much else (except for the film's exceedingly ugly violence). While the filmmaker may be telling us that, sure, sex and violence are what are left behind after most else is taken away from a destitute population, he demonstrates this a little too often and with a little too much sheer enjoyment not to make us feel creeped out in the process of viewing his often horrifying work.

Señor Soto, shown at left, offers up a handful of characters and events that are co-joined by blood -- meaning both family and that red. oozing stuff -- in a time frame that circles back on itself so that what we might imagine is taking place afterward is actually occurring beforehand (or simultaneously). None of this will seem new to die-hard moviegoers (especially those who've viewed Amores Perros), but Soto serves it up well enough and draws persuasive performances from most of his cast.

His characters includes a tubby adolescent, a midwife who works in the local hospital and desperately wants to conceive a child (below), a teenage boxer with some talent who doubles as a murderer (further below), his father (three photos down) and the gangster/drug lord who controls them all (shown at bottom).

While things have certainly grown much worse since the economic meltdown, nothing in the film -- not the characters nor the events -- would seem to indicate that any of these are newly minted. They clearly predated the collapse but certainly have grown worse since then.

In the lengthy pre-credit sequence alone, we begin with that sex and drug use, combined with voyeurism and a rather philosophic narrative that turns out to be something less that we first imagine. We then move on to what is, I think, one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever witnessed on film in which a young boy is taken from his father's car at gunpoint and literally beaten to death in front of his father, even as he keeps calling out for his daddy to help him.

The reason for all this is presumably the usual -- money and power, drugs and sex -- but the how and why appears so arbitrary and almost simple (hasn't anyone thought of "offing" the lead gangster, who seems relatively henchmen-free?) that one can't help wondering about what kind of power structure is in place here.

There is clearly a political crackdown-on-drugs afoot, and at the finale this plays into events. Along the way we get another murder or two (one of a hospitalized, drug-addicted new mother by our infertile nurse), the possible conscription into whoring of a group of schoolgirls (below), our tubby teen's use as a drug mule, homemade sex videos via camera, and, gosh, I've lost count.

The sad little "unincorporated territory" of The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has seldom looked less attractive or more disgusting, with the huge gap between the wealthy and the rest of the country about as pronounced as anywhere in the western world. La Granja is said to have taken a full four years to complete because it was condemned by the Puerto Rican government film establishment, and while one can understand why (a tourism generator, the film is not) and condemn this condemnation, one can also wish that this were a better film than it is.

Released here in the USA via Breaking Glass Pictures and running 100 minutes, La Granja opens this Friday, June 9, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center and in San Diego at the Digital Gym/Media Arts Center.

Beauty in both despair and rebirth: Julio Quintana's gorgeous THE VESSEL opens

Faith gets a good workout in the new Spanish-language film, THE VESSEL (El navio), from writer/director Julio Quintana, a fellow who was first assistant camera on Paradise Recovered, one of the very few faith-based films TrustMovies has seen that he actually enjoyed and found worth recommending. This new one is also worth recommending, and not only for its immense beauty. It also tells a rather timeless story of despair, faith and rebirth in a manner smart enough intellectually and with frequent eye-popping visuals that make the trip worthwhile.

Starring a quietly impressive actor, Lucas Quintana (shown below, who may or may not be related to the director, Julio, shown at left), as its hero, Leo, the film also offers a better-known American actor, Martin Sheen (seen on poster, top, and further below), in a major supporting role as the town priest. The beautiful little seaside village in which the movie takes place endured a low-level Tsunami some years back in which all the town's school-age children (along with their teacher) were pulled into the ocean to drown.

Since then, the village has lost its "faith." The women are still wearing black; couples don't copulate; children aren't born. Our hero's mom (played by Jacqueline Duprey, below, left), having lost her other son (the one she preferred) has gone a little cuckoo (she wears pink but gets away with it because she's perceived as nuts). Even Leo's love interest (Aris Mejias, below, right) -- who married that drowned school-teacher because our guy was too shy to speak to her -- seem to have remained "stillborn" so far as any real growth is concerned.

The poor, put-upon priest is unable to coerce his flock into anything approaching belief, let alone action. Now, all this might sound like a set-up for the usual faith-in-Christianity film. And it is. Especially given all the religion symbols we observe visually, followed by something seemingly miraculous and Lazarus-like that happens. But the manner in which Quintana works out what follows is not so simple.

Faith is always front and center here but how it is perceived and acted upon by the "flock" is, as ever, more stupid and sheep-like than anything else. Even Leo's quest to build some kind of ship (below) out of the remains of the schoolhouse does not reflect, well, world-class thinking.

In the end, what happens could be said to be due as much to man as to god (even if man is maybe acting out what he imagines that god wants).

What holds this movie afloat, then aloft, is its great beauty. Quintana and his cinematographer (Santiago Benet Mari), together with the Puerto Rican locations they've chosen, conspire to make this one of the most visually splendid films in a long while.

This is not due simply to the gorgeous settings -- the beautifully "distressed" architecture, the ever-present sea, the vast sky, the colors, the verdant foliage -- but as much to the perspective, often odd and just slightly "off," that the movie offers.

Shots of water bubbling up unexpectedly; old, thick, hardcover books drying out over a clothes line; stunning faces, seen angry or in repose. All of this combines to keep our eyes glued, even as our minds struggle with the meaning.

There are times here when the townspeople seem so stupid and inhumane that they don't deserve to survive (they may bring to mind our current Trump supporters: ah, humanity!), and if the Jesus symbolism gets a little thick -- dragging that boat as a stand-in for the cross -- nothing lasts long enough to become "overdone."

The movie always bounces back, and its final thought about how we are all connected is expressed verbally with as much beauty and intelligence as Quintana's visuals have offered.

From Outsider Pictures and running a lean 85 minutes, the film opens all across the country this Friday, Sept. 16.

Note: This film is being shown in two versions: one spoken in English, the other in Spanish with English subtitles. Check with the specific theater to learn which version is being shown -- and when.

In New York City, you can see it at the AMC Empire 25; in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Music Hall and Playhouse 7, and at AMC's Rolling Hills 20 and Orange 30 (in Orange Country).

Here in South Florida it will open in Miami at AMC's Aventura Mall 24 (spoken in English only) and Sunset Place 24 (spoken in Spanish with English subtitles); in Coral Gables at the Bill Cosford Cinema, (both English and Spanish versions shown here), and in the Fort Lauderdale area at the Cinema Paradiso, Hollywood (in Spanish with English subtitles).

Personal appearance in South Florida 

by star, Lucas Quintana

Friday, September 16
AMC SUNSET PLACE 24 The Shops at Sunset Place 5701 Sunset Dr #300 South Miami, FL 33143 Introduction & Q/A(s) with Lucas Quintana will take place. The Spanish version of the film will be presented.
Saturday, September 17
AMC AVENTURA 24 Aventura Mall 19501 Biscayne Blvd #3001 Aventura, FL 33180 Introduction and Q&A will take place with Lucas Quintana at 3pm. The English version of the film will be presented.
CINEMA PARADISO-HOLLYWOOD 2008 Hollywood Blvd Hollywood, FL 33020 Introduction & Q/A’s with Lucas Quintana will take place at the 6:30pm and 9:30pm screenings. The Spanish version of the film will be presented. ****A special reception at 8:30pm (between the two shows) will feature a live musical performance by Quintana. The reception is open to ticket holders for either screening. Complimentary Tapas will be served and wine will be available for purchase. For Advance tickets and details visit: www.fliff.com
Sunday, September 19 
BILL COSFORD CINEMA 5030 Brunson Dr Coral Gables, FL 33146 Q/A at 4:00pm with Lucas Quintana. For advance tickets and details visit: www.cosfordcinema.com The Spanish version of the film will be presented. The theater will alternate Spanish and English language versions throughout the engagement.

Click here and then click on IN CINEMAS on the task bar to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and  theaters -- including the forthcoming Q&As.

Paco Vásquez' progressive broadside THE GREAT FALLACY: The Milking of the Puerto Rican Colony

The first thing that should probably pop into the minds of progressive viewers watching the new documentary from Paco Vásquez (he wrote, directed, co-shot and co-edited it) -- THE GREAT FALLACY: The Milking of the Puerto Rican Colony -- is how utterly similar what has and is happening in Puerto Rico is to what has and continues to happen here in the rest of the U.S. (P.R. being a kind of colony, legally an unincorporated territory, of the U.S.A.). The complaints registered by the working class populace -- how money from the wealthy and the corporations control elections, after which the wealthy and those corporations rule by proxy via lobbyists and bought-off politicians. Sound familiar? It should.

As Senor Vásquez shows us (the film-maker appears at right, below and at bottom--because I could not find enough usable stills from this film), all this seems to happen more quickly and "efficiently" in Puerto Rico, and although the details are somewhat different from that in the greater United States, they are, as we see, quite worth learning via this informa-tive film.

From a kind of "gag order" on lawyers to the dis-empowerment and then sacking of a representative for the elderly, the documentary offers up example after example of how the powerful maintain their hold, right down to the manner in which -- following the sordid and stupid examples of Europe, Britain and Ireland -- in bad economic times the government is made to tighten the country's belt so that the poor and middle class suffer most and pay for the continuing sins of the wealthy. After which, of course, the economic crisis -- instead of getting better, as the right-wing always promises -- simply grows worse. In the case of Puerto Rico, the economy collapsed.

"I could never understand why I had to pay for their crisis," notes one incensed citizen. Which does make one wonder why we are all not asking this question, then kicking the bums from power and electing those who would work for real change. Of course, we cannot do this, thanks both here and in Puerto Rico to a compromised judicial system that stacks the deck completely against this ever happening (turns out the "colony" has its own version of Citizens United.)

Via a number of talking heads (one of whom appears above) we learn a lot of facts and the reasons for them. We also get some much-needed history of the island's first elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, whom you might call the Sam Yorty of Puerto Rico, as he destroyed the island's public transit system for the good of the automobile lobby.

Once the doc gets into the question of what the public can do about all its troubles and turmoil, the movie becomes a little more difficult to swallow, as it takes on everything from better eating and how Monsanto is destroying this to creating hard-and-fast activists out of its audience. I applaud this, by the way; I just don't think it is quite as easy as Vásquez imagines it to be.

The final fifteen minutes of the film, in fact, could almost be seen as filler: first a section devoted to showing us how beautiful and relatively unspoiled is this lovely island, and then the final and hugely drawn-out end-credit sequence that takes up ten full minutes of our time. Clearly someone wanted to extend the movie to its current 86-minute, feature-length running time.

The Great Fallacy, from Jibaro Media Group, and So Be It Films, opened this past Friday in New York City -- not coincidentally the home-away-from-home of quite a lot of Puerto Ricans -- at the Quad Cinema.  I hope it plays elsewhere around the country because much of what it has to say is timely and very important.

(That's Senor Vásquez, above, accepting his award for Best Spanish Language Film at this year's 8th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival, Florida, held April 18-21, 2013.)