Blockbuster, the Dallas-based video rental outfit, has announced it will co-sponsor a new Latino film festival along with Maya Entertainment, according to Home Media magazine. Maya Entertainment is owned by famed film producer and director Moctesuma Esparza, who seems to have an uncanny knack for mixing business, art and politics. The festival is designed to help the video giant connect more with Latino consumers, says Blockbuster.
Maya and Blockbuster will also work together on a screenwriting competition called Project Goldenlight, whose winner will see their film produced by Maya Entertainment.
Gomez's take? The film festival is a fairly good idea, but we worry that the mission statement of "showcasing domestic and international" Latino films will serve to further perpetuate the stereotype that the nation's 40 million Latinos (most of whom were born here and speak English better than Tony Soprano) are somehow more foreign-like than other Americans.
Gomez also has a polite word of caution for any aspiring screenwriter who might hand over their work to Esparza, having had a dear friend who almost did likewise only to realize Esparza had included fine print that was not going to allow the writer to retain any credit or make any money. And you thought we didn't have our own little Tyler Perry? Pshaw.
Gomez would love to see a US Latino film festival focused entirely on domestic productions, in English, not only because that's where most of us live but also because that's where the money is. Once Hollywood proper sees the economic incentive to include more Latino projects in the mainstream, things will change; as long as we continue to be lumped in with foreign films, however, little will.
Rumors are flying that Boricualicious actor Benicio del Toro is in talks with filmmakers Bobby and Peter Farrelly to play Mo in a remake of The Three Stooges. Sean Penn and Jim Carey are already on board for the film, which has languished more than 10 years in development hell. Can you visualize it, Gomezzers?
Let's think of it this way: If Mr. del Toro gets the part, at least he'll be consistent in playing violent characters known best by their monosyllabic first names.
Gomez is trying to wrap our feeble mind around this whole idea. Mr. del Toro is an excellent actor, to be sure, and will do a good job regardless of the material. We just can't say he was the first name on the list when we thought of this movie. That distinction went to Rosie O'Donnell.
Yahoo news and wire reports indicate that actor Antonio Banderas has bought a 50 percent share in a 570-acre winery in Spain.
Gomez would find the whole arrangement romantic and Spanishly heart-warming, except for the pesky fact that Mr. Banderas is married to a drug addict and alcoholic.
We are not sure that buying a winery under these circumstances is such a good idea, but we're not Mr. Banderas. If we were, we would not have such trouble finding someone to go out for tapas and sangria with us. We'd look much better than we do. And we'd lisp when we said "Thereth nothing wrong with giving Melanie a little poithon now and then."
Indie film Sin Nombre won top honors for cinematography and directing at Sundance this year, and opens at selected theaters this weekend. Reviewers coast to coast say it rocks.
Gomez does not make a habit of commenting in depth on movies we have not actually seen yet, both because it is the right thing to do and because we think this makes us distinct from 99 percent of the film reviewers on the 'net.
However. Gomez will say four things. Gomez does not promise they will be interesting.
One: Gomez, being American, tattoo-free, and more or less middle class, feels heavy and tired every time we see a celebrated new movie full of Latinos, centered on the themes of poverty, gangs, violence, illegal immigration.
Two: Gomez nonetheless has high hopes for Sin Nombre because the writer, director and executive producers are people Gomez respects and trusts not to tell the usual stereotypical tale.
Three: Gomez wonders if there is any elitist/racist nonsense involved in well-to-do Mexicans producing a movie about Honduran "illegal" immigrants and criminals; and if there is, whether the US media will pick up on something so nuanced.
Four: Gomez is impressed and saddened both by the fact that the best films being made at the moment seem not to be getting made in Hollywood - but in spite of it.
MARCH 19, 2009 - There is both good and bad created from the habit of our nation to break human beings off into little groups with nifty names. The bad? We can marginalize and ignore just about anybody, with, say, the flick of a wrist. The good? We get powerful concentrations of art born out of repression, such as next month's Miami Latin Gay Film Festival, April 17 to 19.
While many of the festival's films are in Spanish with English subtitles, Gomez noticed a standout trailer for a film that is entirely in English. Aquarella, directed by David Oliveras, will be screen on April 17 at 7 p.m., with the director attending.
Aquarella is about a "nerdy young artist who falls for a hunky swimmer". It sounds like the story of Gomez's life, except that the swimmer in our life doesn't flirt with us or splash us back. Our hunky swimmer usually just, you know, swims away. Really fast. Even when Gomez pretends to be drowning.
Just a reminder: You don't have to be gay or Latino to support great gay Latin film. You just have to like movies. See you there.
Gomez is supposed to highlight English-language entertainment in the US that features Latino performers. But we will make an exception today for the great news that actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal have teamed up again to make another cutting-edge, excellent film in Spanish (with English subtitles). The first film they did together, as you might recall, was the wonderful Y Tu Mama Tambien.
We will also make an exception because we just read our new Entertainment Weekly, which had about 600 people featured in it - none of them Latinos. Provided that we make up about 20 percent of the population of the nation, and that most of us speak English, our absence is conspicuous and eerie. And inexcusable. And predictable. And nauseating. Gomez will stop now.
Anyway, we've found umbrage in news about the new Luna/Bernal film, Rudo y Cursi, which tells the story of two brothers, soccer, Mexico, hipsterness, headbands, cowboy shirts, irony, etc. It is directed by Carlos Cuaron, the brother of Alfronso Cuaron, who shows great promise.
Gomez has great respect for Mr. Garcia Bernal for having deftly avoided playing any stereotypical characters for Hollywood - which has offered him many. And we will forgive Luna for that Dirty Dancing Havana Nights thing he did a while back, now that he appears to have come to his senses.
We are told the film will be in "limited release" in the United States, while tripe like Madea Eats Ho-Hos will no doubt be shown widely. Why is Gomez not surprised? Why is Gomez ripping EW to shreds?
Director Robert Rodriguez sat down with the folks from Cinemablend while in Austin for SXSW, and filled them in on his latest plans and upcoming projects.
The big news is that Rodriguez's film Machete is ready to roll - if he can get the financing. In Hollywood, as we know, a director is only as valuable as his last movie - and Rodriguez's Grindhouse was less than impressive at the box office.
Rodriguez also said Sin City 2 is "just around the corner," but went on to say, basically, that he's just saying that to keep people happy.
Gomez is amazed by the how little leeway Latino creatives are given in Hollywood if they have one flop, compared to, say, someone like Kevin Costner, who can flop for a decade and still get greenlit for new projects. Gomez is, however, aware that male Hispanic creatives get much more leeway than Latina creatives, who simply tend not to be let in the door. Right Mrs. Longoria-Parker?