Latin & Spanish Film Roadshow Opens Exclusively at Cinema Village in New York on July 19 and the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on July 26

Festival coverage has me behind on the things I should be also covering such as the Latin and Spanish Film Roadshow which has a couple more days at Cinema Village before moving on to Los Angeles on Friday.

Consisting of five films which are playing in rotation each day the roadshow is highlighting  films that are not going to get a big splashy release but should be on your radar.  All of them are good and worth your time.

How good?

I paused my coverage of NYAFF and Fantasia to watch four of the five films instead of what I sold my soul to cover. (The fifth film, CREATURA I covered previously and the review can be found below)

THE PUNISHMENT is a real time thriller about a couple trying to find their son. They left him for a moment for teach him a lesson and then he disappeared. What follows is a microscopic look at a couple in crisis. It will keep you riveted to your seat.

LULLABY is the story of a new mother dealing with her life and family and especially the baby.  It’s a film that doesn’t take the typical path and as such becomes a compelling look at one  woman’s life.

SICA is a good look at a young woman trying to figure out if her fisherman father was lost in a storm or lost because he was up to no good. It’s a nice little drama/thriller that score point because it isn’t the sort of film that Hollywood or most American filmmakers would choose to tell. The result is film that feels fresh.

YOU HAVE TO COME AND SEE IT is the story of the meeting of two couple for dinner and what follows. I’m not going to lie, this was my least favorite of the bunch, largely because it’s the most conventional. It’s a good look at the interaction of two couples, that wasn’t my cup of tea.

Ultimately all of the films are worth your time and money and I recommend you make time for some or all of them.

For more information on the whole series go here  5 FILMS – Outsider Pictures

For tickets at CINEMA VILLAGE GO HERE. 

For tickets at the LAEMMLE ROYAL GO HERE 

CREATURA (2023)
A young woman moves in into a house with her boyfriend and suddenly has to deal with a sudden lack of desire. She then begins o reexamine her life to see what brought her to this place.

I’m not going to lie, while I can admire CREATURA and I could tell you how good the parts of the film are I always felt like an outsider. I’m not sure if its because a number of things are left unsaid, the filmmakers not spelling certain things out specifically, or because the film is very much rooted in the female experience. I say this because through much of the film I kept feeling that had I been a woman it would have made more sense to me.

Very well done, but I think this is going to play better for women than men.