BEST MOVIE QUOTE:

You sold your soul to the devil. How come you still look so good?”

– Gael Garcia Bernal as Hector in The Mother

Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother – Top Movie on Netflix

The Mother had the No. 1 opening weekend of any Netflix film released in 2023 after its release on May 12, 2023.  Distributed by Netflix, The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez is an action-packed thriller that delves into the depths of a mother’s love in an unethical and captivating manner. Directed by visionary filmmaker, Nikki Caro (Whale Rider, The Zookeeper’s Wife, McFarland, USA) the buzz is that the movie takes audiences on an exhilarating and emotional rollercoaster ride. 

According to Heaven of Horror reviews, The Mother is a “good choice for a Friday night action flick where you want to be entertained but also want a decent storyline.” May 12, 2023

Additional Cast: Lucy Paez, Joseph Fiennes, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jesse Garcia,Yvonne Senat Jones, Paul Raci, Edie Falco, Michael Karl Richards, Link Baker, Mayumi Yoshida, Ryan Cowie, Todd Matthews, Yadier Fernandez, Olivia Lucas, Jay Cardinal Villenueve, Medi Regragui

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan

The official trailer for the fourth and final season of the action series, starring John Krasinski and Michael Peña as Domingo Chavez, Wendell Pierce, Michael Kelly, Betty Gabriel and Abbie Cornish, and Louis Ozawa. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has been shared by Prime Video. The epic and exciting final season will be arriving through the streaming platform on June 30^th, with new episodes available every Friday.

The fourth and final season finds Jack Ryan on his most dangerous mission yet: facing an enemy both foreign and domestic. As the new CIA Acting Deputy Director, Ryan is tasked with unearthing internal corruption, and in doing so, uncovers a series of suspicious black ops that could expose the vulnerability of the country. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is co-produced by Amazon Studios, Paramount Television Studios, and Skydance Television, and executive produced by Allyson Seeger, Andrew Form, John Krasinski, Brad Fuller, Michael Bay, and John Kelly.  05/31/2023

Sergio Calderón, Mexican Character Actor Dies at 77

Sergio Calderón died Wednesday in a Los Angeles hospital of natural causes, a family spokesman announced. He was a popular and respected character actor who made his mark in such iconic films as The In-Laws, Men in Black and Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. At the turn of the 20th century, Calderón came to the attention of Hollywood after he portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in Duck, You Sucker (1971), written and directed  by Sergio Leone, and was a murderous Mexican chief of police opposite Albert Finney in John Huston’s Under the Volcano (1984). In the 1979 Arthur Hiller comedy The In-Laws is the film that got him his SAG card. 

Eva Longoria’s Searching For Mexico

Stanley Tucci and Eva Longoria teamed up to produce six episodes that explores the culture, traditions and foods of her Mexican roots, in Searching For Mexico, CNN’s original series. Search for the show and once you watch the first episode you will not be able to avoid binge watching the five remaining shows. Longoria is in post production for two upcoming new projectd, Land of Women, a TV mini series co-starring with Carmen Maura and Vanessa Casta?os, and War of the Worlds, an adventure/drama/horror, co-starring with Ice Cube and Michael O’Neill.If you missed the episodes, they are streaming. Check them out on CNN!

Cast: Lucy Paez, Joseph Fiennes, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jesse Garcia, Yvonne Senat Jones, Paul Raci, Edie Falco, Michael Karl Richards, Link Baker, Mayumi Yoshida, Ryan Cowie, Todd Matthews, Yadier Fernandez, Olivia Lucas, Jay Cardinal Villenueve, Medi Regragui

Penélope Cruz joins the Lancôme: La Vie Est Belle Campaign

The short beauty high profile Lacome short promotes The Scent of Happiness… “life is beautify,” is about choosing your own path to happiness and inspiring others. Complex and modern, the Eau de Parm campaign  features Lily Collings, Penélope Cruz, Hoyeon, Julia Roberts, Amanda Seyfried, Aya Nakamura, Isabella Rossellini, and Zendaya

Director: Emmanuel Adjel

Michelle Rodriguez & Rita Moreno Forge Ahead in Fast X 

Action Film Roared into Theaters May 19, 2023

Moving forward without a key character, Brian O’Conner portrayed by the late Paul Walker wasn’t easy, but Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto the head of the family is joined by Michelle Rodriguez and Jason Stratham in the new action/adventure/crime Fast X movie. The legendary West Side Story actress, Rita Moreno, plays Dom’s grandmother, Abuela Toretto. And, boy it’s the ride of a lifetime! Fast X is such a spectacular movie production that it is a 2-part movie, the first being Fast X that just premiered and the second part will premiere sometime in 2025. 

 Dom Toretto and his family are targeted by the vengeful son (Jason Momoa) of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes. According to the storyline: “The end of the road begins. Fast X, the tenth film in the Fast and Furious Saga, launches the final chapters of one of cinema’s most storied and popular global franchises, now in its third decade and still going strong with the same core cast and characters as when it began. Cast also includes Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Stratham, John Cena and Scott Eastwood, with several Oscar® winners, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, and Alan Richtson. Fast X is produced by Neal H. Moritz, Vin Diesel, Justin Lin, Jeff Kirschebaum and Samanta Vincent. And, executive produced by Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr., David Cain, Chris Morgan, Amanda Lews and Mark Bomback. 

Most of the reviews have been positive, sharing the same overall sentiment: “From the very beginning, Fast X grabs hold of the audience’s attention and refuses to let go.”

The post SHOWBuzz: From ‘The Mother’ to Rita Moreno in ‘Fast X’ and Everything in Between first appeared on .

Actors Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Ariana DeBose and director Guillermo Del Toro stand out among the 14 Latinos nominated for the 94th Academy Awards. Consequently, Twenty-twenty-two and 2006 tie as the years with the most Latino candidacies in Oscars history. Notably, this year’s nods for Latinos are across the board and include nominations in the most coveted categories. 

Del Toro’s film noir Nightmare Alley nabbed four noms, including Best Picture for the Mexican cineaste, while Disney’s Encanto, set in a magical Colombia, got three, including Animated Feature Film. 

Two other movies with Latino connections that received multiple nominations are the biopic Being the Ricardos with three, including one for Bardem as a leading actor, and West Side Story with seven, with one for DeBose as a supporting actress.

INCLUSION, LAYERED STORIES
This year’s inclusion of three Latino noms in the acting categories is a reminder of the power and impact of inclusion, diversity and accurate and multi-dimensional portrayals of minorities in film, for which Latinos have been pressing for decades. The noms were arguably made possible by projects with Latino themes and featuring prominent Latino roles, namely Encanto, West Side Story and Being the Ricardos. Moreover, the candidacies of Bardem, Cruz and DeBose are history-making. 

TWO SPANISH ICONS BOTH WITH FOUR NOMS EACH
In what may be a first, Spain’s husband-wife duo Bardem and Cruz could be the couple that has each received four Oscar nominations and won an Oscar each.

Bardem’s Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar nom for Being the Ricardos is his fourth for the Oscars, winning for his role of a psychopathic killer in No Country for Old Men in 2008. His nod this year ties him with Mexican-born thespian Anthony Quinn as the Latino male actor with the most Academy Award nominations in history. 

In a statement released by Bardem yesterday, he congratulated his fellow nominee in the best actor category, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield.

The 2022 Oscars edition also brings a fourth Oscar nod for Cruz, who competes in Actress in a Supporting Role for Madres Paralelas, her seventh collaboration with acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar. This year’s fourth nomination makes Cruz the Latina actress with the most Oscar nominations. In 2008 she won the Academy Award for the romantic dramedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen.

Other nominees in this category include Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart.

LATINA & BLACK
DeBose, a proud Afro-Latina, received a nod for Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reimagined musical West Side Story. She is the first U.S. born Latina of black descent to be nominated for the Academy Award. The role of Anita won her the Golden Globe earlier this year.

Rita Moreno played Anita in the original 1960 musical feature, taking home both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for her role. History could repeat itself if DeBose can replicate Moreno’s win of both these two industry awards for playing the same character.

In her first shot for the Academy Award, Debose joins a category that includes nominees Jessie Buckley, Judi Dench, Kirsten Dunst and Aunjanue Ellis.

‘ENCHANTING’ PRODUCTION, MUSIC
All three nominations for Encanto include Latinos. In Best Animated Film, Chicana filmmaker Yvett Merino is one of three producers sharing the honor. 

The Disney animated film’s two other nods are for music. Lin-Manuel Miranda vies for the prize for Original Song with the Spanish-language ballad “Dos Oruguitas,” giving the acclaimed Puerto Rican a second chance to become an EGOT. The prestigious acronym distinguishes a handful of artists who have won the four top American awards in entertainment, an Emmy for TV, Grammy for music, Oscar for film and a Tony for theater. Having won the first three, Miranda lost his first bid for an Academy Award in 2017 for writing the theme song for another Disney film, Moana. 

Miranda’s competition this year includes renowned songwriters Beyoncé, Van Morrison and Billie Eilish.

“Dos Oruguitas” is also making history as the first song fully in Spanish nominated for an Oscar. While Coco’s Academy Award-winning “Remember Me” included lyrics in Spanish, the ballad was a bilingual composition with about half in English and half in Spanish.

Encanto‘s Germaine Franco is a first-time Oscar nominee competing in the Original Score category. She is not the only contender of Latino descent in her category. Franco faces Spanish Alberto Iglesias, the composer for Madres Paralelas.

Carlos López Estrada of Mexico, who stands out among the producers of Raya and the Last Dragon that also vies for the award for Best Animated Film. 

SEVERAL CONTENDERS IN SHORTS
Additionally, five Latino producers, including a woman, battle it out with short films. 

Chile’s Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz compete in Short Film Animated with the Spanish-language Bestia, a stop-motion movie about a secret police agent during the Chilean military dictatorship. Other nominees in the same category are Spain-born Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez with The Windshield Wiper centered on a man who ponders about love while smoking at a cafe.  

For her part, K.D. Dávila stands out among the candidates for an Oscar for Short Film Live action. The Mexican-American filmmaker competes with Please Hold, about a young man whose life is derailed and finds himself at the mercy of automated justice.

The Oscars will broadcast live March 27.

The post Latinos in Prominent Oscar Noms in 2022 With Some History-Making Firsts first appeared on .

This morning’s Oscar nomination for Javier Bardem for Best Actor for his role as Desi Arnaz makes it the fourth time he has been singled out for his work by the Academy of Motion Pictures members. In 2008 he took home the Best Supporting Oscar for his portrayal of the psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men.

This year he joins Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield, all competing in the Best Supporting Actor category. 

The nomination comes for his portrayal of Desi Arnaz, the Cuban half of one of the most successful TV couples—and in real life—who starred and produced I Love Lucy for six seasons on CBS. It is the story of TV’s golden-age and best-loved couple, still to this date. 

“To embody Desi Arnaz’s spirit was a privilege and an honor and to be connected to his energy and legacy is something I will never forget,” said Bardem upon hearing of his nomination.  “Thank you to his family for trusting me with the responsibility of bringing this larger-than-life entertainer and entrepreneur to screen.”

This nomination comes on the heels of a very public discussion by some U.S. Latinos objecting to Bardem playing Arnaz because he is a European “White” and not a “person of color.” Bardem’s response to this was short and succinct. “I’m an actor, and that’s what I do for a living: try to be people that I’m not,” he said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Obviously, the nominating membership of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences who do the actual nominating focused on the execution of the role and not the controversy.

Bardem thanked Sorkin for the “beautiful” script and his direction. And of course, he took the opportunity to congratulate his wife Penelope Cruz for her nomination as Best Actress in Parallel Mothers.  Cruz previously won the Best Actress golden statue for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and has two other Best Supporting Actress nominations, for Volver in 2006 and Nina in 2009. 

Bardem and Cruz join the list of six other married actor couples to be nominated for an Oscar in the same year, one other couple was Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The Oscars air live on Sunday, March 27 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.

The post ‘Becoming The Ricardos’ Marks Javier Bardem’s 4th Oscar Nom With One Win  first appeared on .

Jimmy Smits’ New  NBC series Bluff City Law for Sept, 2019

Jimmy Smits new legal drama Bluff City Law has been picked up as a continuing series for Monday nights 10: P.M. on the NBC network 2019 Fall Schedule. Bluff City Law stars Smits as Elijah Strait and Sydney Keller (Caitlin McGee) as a Memphis Tennessee father-daughter legal team who take on explosive civil rights cases that are as explosive as their own volatile relationship. Dean Georgaris (The Brave) serves as Executive producer along with Michael Aquilar (Constantine) and David Janollan (Six Feet Under, Midnight). The series pilot was directed by Jessica Yu (Grey’s Anatomy). Smits is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment (Management), and Carol Marshall Public Relations. Follow drama series on social media: @NBCBluffCityLaw

Edgar Ramirez, Sebastian Stan in Exciting Spy Film, 355

Edgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan (Avengers: Endgame) join Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyongo and Jessica Chastain in the new spy action film 355, about a group of female spies who must bond together in order to stop an earthshaking event that will thrust the world into chaos and destruction. The film begins shooting in London, Paris, and Morocco this July and will be released by Universal Pictures. Ramirez recently starred in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Ramirez is repped by CAA and Impression Entertainment.  Stan is repped by ICM and Brookside Artist Management.

Rosa Salazar & Lauren Schacher Join Forces for The Bang Bang Girls Film

Rosa Salazar (Bird Box), who starred in Robert Rodriquez’s big budget Sci-Fi epic film Alita: Battle Angel, will star in and executive produces a new feature film comedy The Bang Bang Girls to be written and directed by Lauren Schacher making her directorial debut. The Bang Bang Girls is the story of a high school valedictorian and her two best friends who recruit their new chemistry teacher (Salazar) to form a secret after school sex education club. Salazar’s other credits include The Maze Runner franchise and the Divergent series: Insurgent. She will be seen next starring in the Amazon series Undone. Salazar is repped by Paradigm and Vanderkloof Law.

Documentary on Dolores Huerta wins Prestigious Peabody Awards

The Independent Lens PBS documentary Dolores, profiling 89-year-old living Mexican American activist Dolores Huerta won the Prestigious Peabody Award for documentaries. The critically acclaimed documentary Dolores is described in the event program as “an exhilarating portrait of activist and community organizer Dolores Huerta that serves as a timely reminder of the power of collective action in service of social justice.” The documentary was produced by legendary guitarist Carlos Santana and directed by Peter Bratt.  Huerta was present in New York at the awards ceremony to accept the award on May 18^th, 2019. 

The post Jimmy Smits “Bluff”, Edgar Ramirez Joins Spies, Rosa Salazar & “The Bang Bang Girls” first appeared on .