Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageEl Cantante (2006)
Director: Leon Ichaso
Movie review
From Time Out London
Produced by and co-starring Jennifer Lopez, this messy, maudlin portrait of the decline and decline of Puerto Rico-born salsa star Héctor Lavoe wavers uncertainly between cable channel biopic and socially concerned drug movie. From the ’60s on, singer Lavoe was one of the premier Latin musical alchemists fusing jazz, samba and merengue into the ‘gumbo sauce’ of salsa. J Lo’s husband Marc Anthony makes for a sympathetic and touchingly innocent falling angel, but Lopez’s booty-shakin’ Bronx bitch of a wife, who introduces him to the weed, seriously over-eggs her performance.The musical performances – including three elaborate, big-band set-pieces – should provide some compensation, but even these are chopped and chequered by director Leon Ichaso’s over-fondness for annoying cut-aways, wipe-pans and flash edits. The movie as a whole never flows – broken up as it is with MTV credits and black-and-white flashbacks – and therefore never delivers either insight or any proper emotional engagement. Shame.
Author: Wally Hammond
Time Out London Issue 1985, 4-10 Sept
User reviews of this film
-
- cristina medina said...
- Posted on Aug 05 2007 14:58 the best.i give them all a 10
- Report as inappropriate
-
- cristina medina said...
- Posted on Aug 05 2007 14:56 that was a beautiful movie.he was the best.now marc and jenny were excellent they deserve a award.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Leon Ichaso
Cast: Mark Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Romi Dias full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 118 mins
UK Release: Sep 5 2008
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now