As the season ends: not much good news

Latino actors did not fare well in the 2011-2012 season…but neither did anyone else. It has not been a great year for Latinos on TV. More precisely, it hasn’t been a great year in television for anybody, including Latinos. As …

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Some familiar faces in surprising roles get the nominations for MTV’s Best Latino Actor, 2012

There are some very familiar faces and a few surprises coming at the MTV Movie Awards this year, at least as far as the Latino division is concerned. Some of the names and roles for Best Latino Actor are just …

View full post

“Dallas” approaches, with Latinos in key roles

After a whole lot of ballyhoo, the ‘continuation’ (as opposed to reboot or remake) of Dallas, the iconic “bad family” soap, is returning to TNT…and unlike its first go-round, this is well-populated by Latinos in front and behind the camera. …

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The Orci-Kurtzman Empire continues to expand: add the “Spider-Man” sequel and one last season of “Fringe”

It’s becoming more and more difficult to find a major pop-culture blockbuster that hasn’t got the fingerprints of Roberto Orci and his writing/producing partner Alex Kurtzman all over it. They’ve been part of everything from Transformers to the reboot of …

View full post

Pixar planning a “Día de los muertos” movie

Animation has been enjoying a major renaissance in the twenty-first century, and that’s a good thing…but for the most part, most of the major films have had a distinctly Northern European look and feel, even when the stories are ostensibly …

View full post
As the season ends: not much good news Some familiar faces in surprising roles get the nominations for MTV’s Best Latino Actor, 2012 “Dallas” approaches, with Latinos in key roles The Orci-Kurtzman Empire continues to expand: add the “Spider-Man” sequel and one last season of “Fringe” Pixar planning a “Día de los muertos” movie

May
18

Patricia Krebs: artist, performer, and honoree at Reel Rasquache

Patricia Krebs has been a friend of Se Fija! since the day we began. That’s why we were especially pleased to see that the Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival has chosen her as recipient for the 2012 Vision Award. She is a remarkably talented and accomplished woman in a wide range of media, and well deserving of the attention. Here’ s a little bit more about her…

Patricia Krebs was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she earned her degrees in Fine Arts and Contemporary Visual Arts. Since 2001, she has lived in Los Angeles, California, where she works as a full-time multimedia artist. Krebs’ artwork has been exhibited in galleries and cultural centers, and featured on books covers, CDs and educational magazines in South and North America. She has designed and illustrated over a dozen books, including several award winning children’s picture books, and created puppets, props and masks for theatrical events. In addition, she has written lyrics & music for her own musical projects as well as for other artists and companies, and recorded Spanish voiceovers for major movies, such as Corpse Bride, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Beowulf, and Happy Feet I & II. Read the rest of this entry »

May
10

As the season ends: not much good news

Latino actors did not fare well in the 2011-2012 season…but neither did anyone else.

It has not been a great year for Latinos on TV. More precisely, it hasn’t been a great year in television for anybody, including Latinos. As the TV season staggers to a sorry end, let’s take a last look at that which has gone before…then try to forget it as quickly as possible.

NBC: Anybody left?
Eddie Cibrian and The Playboy Club was one of the first to go. Not long after, Al Madrigal and Free Agents disappeared and almost no one noticed. Most recently, Kirk Acevedo and Elizabeth Rodriguez, along with Maria Bello and a stellar cast, just couldn’t make Prime Suspect work. Alfred Molina appeared in a powerful arc on Harry’s Law, Mel Rodriguez’ wandered through a short and not terribly successful series of Community episodes. And we had to say goodbye to the underrated Josh Gomez as Chuck careened to a close. And though the new season announcements are still a few days away, a number of NBC series featuring Latinos are in jeopardy, including Parks & Recreation with Aubrey Plaza, Parenthood with Sarah Ramos, Awake with Wilmer Valderrama Harry’s Law with Karen Olivos, and even The Office, with Oscar Nuñez, whose post-Steve Carrell retooling has not gone well, ratings-wise. Only Danny Pino and Law & Order: SVU has a solid renewal order of 2012-13.

ABC: Even the powerhouse is shaken up.
The survival rate over on ABC is much better. Come the fall, we’ll still see Jon Huertas on Castle; Sofía Vergara and Rico Rodriguez will both remain ridiculously visible as part of the ensemble on Modern Family and there’s every indication that Grey’s Anatomy and Sara Ramirez, as well as Benjamin Bratt and Private Practice will live to see another year. ABC even had two shows that began this season survive into second years: Hector Elizondo will be hanging in there as Tim Allen’s bosom buddy on Last Man Standing, while Lana Parrilla’s powerful work in Once Upon a Time will be back in the fall as well. Of course, ABC had a few of the most prominent crash-and-burns this year as well, notably the horror-adventure series The River (Daniel Zacapa and Paulina Gaitan), which was neither scary nor exciting, while Ramon Rodriguez quickly lost his gig as Bosley in the new Charlie’s Angels, a show that many critics dubbed one of the worst of the Fall. Marisol Nichols’ looked good on the heavily promoted GCB, but amid controversy and over-the-top plotting, it doesn’t look long for this world. And as for Amaury Nolasco’s part in Working It, one of the least funny and most insulting sitcoms of the season…well, the less said, the better. Meanwhile, it’s time for two bittersweet farewells: so long and thanks for all the laughs to Desperate Housewives, and just now we’ve learned that Ian Gomez and Cougar Town is pulling up stakes, and moving to Cabletown. You’ll see it next season on TBS. Read the rest of this entry »

May
09

Some familiar faces in surprising roles get the nominations for MTV’s Best Latino Actor, 2012

There are some very familiar faces and a few surprises coming at the MTV Movie Awards this year, at least as far as the Latino division is concerned.

Some of the names and roles for Best Latino Actor are just who you’d expect: Zoë Saldaña for Colombiana. Penélope Cruz for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. And it was good to see Demián Bichir’s powerful performance in A Better Life get a nod too.

Penélope Cruz

But there are a couple of unusual choices, too–both puzzling and revealing. For one, you have distinguished international star

 as a nominee…but not for Contraband or Rudo y Cursi. He’s nominated for his, um, ‘work’ in Will Ferrel’s Casa de mi Padre, the horrible-Spanish-Language parody of telenovelas and bad Latin cinema in general. Then, from the other end of the culture, MTV has also nominated transgender actress Harmony Santana for her incredibly effective performance in 2011’s family drama Gun Hill Road. (we’ve talked about this movie at length before, here and here.) Read the rest of this entry »

May
07

Michael Peña’s Big Break #203: “End of Watch”

Michael Peña

Michael Peña deserves better. This is one talented actor, who can do drama and action, who can play comedy and touch your heart (sometimes at the same time). And last year should have been his year: in a single twelve-month period, he was featured in The Lincoln Lawyer (which, despite decent reviews, sank without a trace last spring), the alien-invasion epic Battlefield: Los Angeles (which made a ton of money but didn’t do a damn thing for anyone’s career), and he was funny as hell as part of the ensemble in Tower Heist (which was supposed to be Eddie Murphy’s big comeback picture, and–despite heavy promotion–was forgotten in a matter of weeks), and in a strangely similar turn as a funny-dumb criminal in 30 Second or Less. In total, five separate movies with Peña in a prominent role were released in 2011…and he still isn’t nearly as well-known as he should be.

End of Watch should change that. His role as a tough–even arrogant–L.A. beat cop on a hot streak is very impressive, and throughout he’s teamed up–and shares almost every scene–with the already established screen presence of Jake Gyllenhaal. And America Ferrera and Natalie Martinez (Detroit 1-8-7) are in the mix, too. Judging by the powerful trailer that was just released, this is the one that’s going to get people talking about Michael Peña, once and for all. And it’s way overdue.

Enjoy the trailer. End of Watch hits theaters on September 28.

 

 

May
03

Bernal, Hernandez, and Vega vs. the Avengers. YOU be the judge!

There are almost no Latino faces in The Avengers for more than a few seconds…but you can see plenty of Latino talent in the other releases this week.

Most of the major studios–in a sudden burst of good strategy–are holding off new releases until after The Avengers sweeps up every spare dollar in American during its opening weekend. But it’s interesting to note that three of the few films also opening this week have Latinos in the cast, and one of them even above the title.

If you like your romantic comedy populated by grown-ups, you can sample A Little Bit of Heaven, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Kate Hudson. Bernal, in a long-overdue ‘light’ role, plays a doctor–an actual doctor–who’s the perfectly imperfect match to Hudson’s beautiful goofy charming persona. The big problem with the critics–who have almost unanimously panned it–isn’t with Bernal or Hudson, but with a script that tries to play light-comedy with the serious subject of terminal cancer. And Peter Dinklage as an escort. Still, a lot of people want to see this; it may yet defy the critics, and it does give Bernal the chance to get in front of the mainstream American film fan again.

If, instead, you want an equally panned rom-com for the younger set, take a look at LOL, starring Miley Cyrus and featuring our buddy Jay Hernandez. Guess he squeezed this in before moving on to the pilot for Trooper.

And Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of most of the Saw pictures, is back with what looks like the beginning of a new horror franchise, beginning with Mother’s Day. Jaime King and Rebecca de Mornay…but Spy Kids Alexa Vega is also part of the evil brood trying to destroy the lives of innocent homeowners (or maybe she’s one of the innocents…we’ll let you know!)

So there are alternatives to the relentless (and almost entirely Latino-free) The Avengers onslaught. (We see you Jesse Garcia and Walter Perez! At least for a moment…) and it’s a good indication that Latino Hollywood is still alive and well, despite the attack of the Anglo Blockbusters.

May
02

“Dallas” approaches, with Latinos in key roles

After a whole lot of ballyhoo, the ‘continuation’ (as opposed to reboot or remake) of Dallas, the iconic “bad family” soap, is returning to TNT…and unlike its first go-round, this is well-populated by Latinos in front and behind the camera.

First and foremost is the presence of Cubana writer Cynthia Cidre as show runner. Cidre, the creative force behind the short-lived Latino family-soap Cane, is bringing strong women and Latino characters into the forefront from her quietly powerful positions behind the scenes.  It’s evident even before the premiere: where the only visible Latino character in the original show was the silent and obedient housekeeper, now that housekeeper–played by the formidable Marlene Forte–runs the damn house. And even more important, her incredibly beautiful daughter, played by Latina Jordana Brewster, is the central love interest for both the young Ewing boys–a new character, clearly and proudly Latina. Meanwhile one of the very-very Anglo character happens to be played by a Latina, Julie Gonzalo, born in Argentina. And Carlos Bernard plays a Venezuelan businessman named, Vicente Cano.

TNT clearly thinks they have a winner here; they’re pushing it hard, with lots of online and on-air promotions, including some new promotional footage in the last few days. Here is one of those promo’s featuring Jordana and giving us a glimpse of what looks like a pretty classy and creative return to South Fork.

We’ll all get a chance to see it first hand next month. Dallas premieres on TNT on June 13. Check out the trailer here.

Apr
30

HispanicTips.com does the impossible: 100,000 posts!

Here at Se Fija!, we generally stick to Latinos working in front and behind the camera, though we include web cameras and internetical stuff in general sometimes. Today we’re going to bend our own rules just al little to pay tribute to a really remarkable accomplishment:

Tomas Custer has just posted his 100,000th post at HispanicTips.com.

No, that’s not a typo: One. Hundred. Thousand. As he says in his own post (of course!) about the milestone: 2,494 days ago, almost 7 years and 10 months, he started down this path, and he’s still here, still curating. Tomas started the project way back when because–as he says himself–there was a glaring lack of Latino news in English. “Things have changed quite a bit since then,” he writes now, “with more than several big media companies starting news websites in English targeting Hispanics…but there is still nothing to compare to this service. This site is all about relevant, comprehensive and respectful curation of the news to improve our knowledge and understanding.”

HispanicTips is the ultimate “aggregator” site: Tomas reads pretty much everything, everywhere about (or of interest to) the Latino community, then posts a link with a descriptive headline, so visitors can click quickly and easily right through to read the story and judge for themselves. How he does it (and how he’s done it for so long) is a mystery to all of us, but today thousands of unique visitors make it to his barebones, no-nonsense web site every month, and we’re one of them. We admit it: we steal–ah, adapt, that’s it–liberally from Tomas’ site all the time, and we’re far from alone. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr
30

John Leguizamo’s “Ghetto Klown” coming to PBS

John Leguizamo is one of those ubiquitous comedy geniuses that consistently fly’s below the radar. A live stage performer, a voice actor, a TV and movie star and so much more, Leguizamo is probably best known for supplying cartoon voices to movies like Ice Age and its many sequels, though he’s appeared in action pictures like Executive Decision and Collateral Damage and thrillers like the recent Vanishing on 34th Street, and movies that simply defy description, like To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

Now, at long last, his innovative and challenging one-man shows (they’re far more than just standup comedy) will get a piece of the larger audience they deserve when his one-man show, Tales from a Ghetto Klown, makes its broadcast premiere on PBS July 13 at 9 PM ET as part of the PBS Arts Festival.

According to a recent piece on Playbill.com and PBS itself, the hour-long profile “looks at his unorthodox rise to success while capturing his struggles to mount his latest one-man show. From his Colombian and ‘NuyoRican’ roots to his high-profile career in Hollywood, Leguizamo bares his soul.” Klown closed on Broadway last summer, but now it lives on in video hi-fi. It should be quite the journey.

Read the rest of this entry »

Apr
29

The Orci-Kurtzman Empire continues to expand: add the “Spider-Man” sequel and one last season of “Fringe”

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

It’s becoming more and more difficult to find a major pop-culture blockbuster that hasn’t got the fingerprints of Roberto Orci and his writing/producing partner Alex Kurtzman all over it. They’ve been part of everything from Transformers to the reboot of Star Trek, from bombs like Cowboys and Aliens (we blame Jon Favreau!) to Xena: Warrior Princess. And in just the last couple of weeks alone, two more developments:

Star Trek

Orci and Kurtzman have just signed on to rewrite the sequel to the new Spider-Man reboot, even though the first of the new series hasn’t even been released yet. Obviously Sony has high hopes for the new version, and they’re bringin’ in the guys who have managed to breathe life (and zillions of dollars) into other franchises that showed far less promise.  On the heels of that news came an announcement from Fox: they have authorized one final 13-episode season of Fringe, in what co-creator J.J. Abrams says, “will allow the series to conclude in a wild and thrilling way.” So score another one for Orci and Kurtzman: five seasons is a pretty good run for a show that never actually built up the ratings base to deserve it, though it has remained one of the most consistently interesting sf series on the tube. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr
29

Pixar planning a “Día de los muertos” movie

Animation has been enjoying a major renaissance in the twenty-first century, and that’s a good thing…but for the most part, most of the major films have had a distinctly Northern European look and feel, even when the stories are ostensibly international (a la Aladdin or The Lion King). Even stories that are extremely Latino in content, like Carlos Saldanha’s Rio, are North American in concept. (There are exceptions, of course, notably Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Oscar-nominated feature Chico and Rita).

Maybe Pixar’s ready to change all that with this new project: a movie based on the legends and look of the Day of the Dead celebration, complete with its grinning skulls and dancing skeletons. They’re certainly putting their “A” team on the project: Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich will direct; in a recent tweet he said, “So excited to finally reveal my next movie at Pixar: a story set in the world of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos.”

But don’t set your watch on this one; set your calendar. Animation is a slow science, and we shouldn’t expect to see this until the middle of 2015.

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