LISTINGS |  EDITOR'S PICKS | NEWS | MUSIC | MOVIES | DINING | LIFE | ARTS | REC ROOM | CLASSIFIEDS | VIDEO

El cantante

Cookie-cutter bombast
Rating: 2.0 stars
August 1, 2007 12:10:11 PM

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for El cantante.

Until the upcoming satire Walk Hard blows the musical-bio-pic genre into tatters, we’ll have to put up with cookie-cutter bombast like El cantante, a warts-and-all tribute to salsa star Hector Lavoe (Marc Anthony), the Puerto Rican singer who ignited New York’s Latin-music boom of the ’70s and ’80s, became addicted to heroin, and died from AIDS. Puchi (Jennifer Lopez, Anthony’s real-life spouse), Lavoe’s wife and a combative firecracker, tells the couple’s story, which fluctuates from the joy of Hector’s music to the misery caused by his inability to cope with responsibility. Her voiceover often states the obvious, and director Leon Ichaso uses that edgy-gritty-ugly DV style that really isn’t edgy anymore. But as an actor and a singer, Anthony excels. Unlike Lopez, he digs beneath the soap-opera dialogue and bares his character’s soul.
COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to start a conversation.

Login to add comments to this article
Email

Password




Register Now  |   Lost password

The Best 2008 Readers Poll

MOST POPULAR

 VIEWED   EMAILED 

ADVERTISEMENT

BY THIS AUTHOR

MORE REVIEWS
PHOENIX MEDIA GROUP
CLASSIFIEDS







TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
   
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group