Las películas españolas

Houston premiere of The Great Vázquez kicks off Festival of New Spanish Cinema

The Great Vázquez (El Gran Vázquez)
Kidnapped (Secuestrados)
Lope
Photo by Teresa Isasi
Bicycle, Spoon, Apple (Bicicleta, Cuchara, Manzana)
Lovestorming (No Controles)

Houston cineastes will again have the opportunity to savor a sampling of contemporary Spanish films when the touring Festival of New Spanish Cinema returns Friday for a two-weekend run at the Rice Media Center.

This year's selection “is the biggest and most adventurous yet,” promises Marta Sanchez, founder of Pragda and prime organizer behind the 10-city tour of Spanish movies. The diverse program spotlights performances from some of the biggest Spanish stars working today -- including Santiago Segura, Luis Tosar and Leonor Watling – and films (some of them nominated for Goyas, the Spanish equivalent of Oscars) that have been hailed at festivals throughout the world.

This year's selection “is the biggest and most adventurous yet,” promises Marta Sanchez, founder of Pragda and prime organizer behind the 10-city tour of Spanish movies.

The festivities begin at 7 p.m. Friday with the Houston premiere of The Great Vázquez (El Gran Vázquez), filmmaker Oscar Aíbar’s madcap biographical comedy, set in 1960s Barcelona, about influential Spanish cartoonist Manuel Vazquez Gallego, played by Santiago Segura as an incorrigible con man and serial bigamist who steals from one wife to give to another. After the screening, Aíbar will be on hand for a reception provided by Martin Codax and Las Rocas Albariño wine, presented by Casa de España.

Other festival offerings on tap this weekend and next include:

80 DAYS [80 Egunean] – 7 p.m. Saturday

Fifty years after they parted to embark on very different paths in life, childhood girlfriends Axun (Itziar Aizpuru) and Maite (Mariasun Pagoaga) are reunited – and given a second chance to acknowledge their long-repressed desires. Co-directed by Basque directors Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga, this sensitive drama was honored with a Film Commission Award at the 2010 San Sebastian Film Festival.

KIDNAPPED [Secuestrados] – 9 p.m. Saturday

Named best horror film at the 2010 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Miguel Ángel Vivas' technically proficient but aggressively violent thriller focuses on sadistic home invaders who torment a family of upscale Madrid suburbanites. During its fleeting U.S. theatrical release last year, reviews were, to put it generously, mixed. Consider yourself warned.

EVERY SONG IS ABOUT ME [Todas las Canciones Hablan de Mi] – 5 p.m. Sunday

Filmmaker Jonás Trueba, son of Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque), earned comparisons to Woody Allen and Francois Truffaut with his debut feature, a light romantic comedy – generously laced with melancholy – about a slackerish would-be poet (Oriol Vila) who’s hard-pressed to get on with his life after the end of his six-year relationship with a lovely, but not infinitely patient, architecture student (Barbara Lennie).

LOPE – 7 p.m. Sunday

Alberto Ammann, Leonor Watling, and Luis Tosar – three superstars of contemporary Spanish cinema – join forces with director Andrucha Waddington (The House of Sand) for this briskly paced period comedy-drama loosely based on the life and loves of 16^th-century Baroque dramatist Lope de Vega y Carpio.

BICYCLE, SPOON, APPLE [Bicicleta, Cuchara, Manzana] -- 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27

Director Carles Bosch details the steadfast struggle of Pasqual Maragall, the former mayor of Barcelona and president of Catalonia, to withstand the relentless ravages of Alzheimer's. Following the H-Town premiere screening of this acclaimed feature – winner of the 2011 Goya for Best Documentary -- the Festival of New Spanish Cinema will host a panel discussion with Alzheimer’s researcher Dr. Gustavo Roman and caregiver Connie Assiff.

WITH OR WITHOUT LOVE [Una Hora Más en Canarias] – 7 p.m. Jan. 28

Love and lunacy commingle chaotically in director David Serrano’s screwball musical comedy about a married megabitch (Colombian star Angie Cepeda) who behaves badly – and, with her zany sister (Juana Acosta), plots madly -- after she’s dumped by her lover (Quim Gutierrez).

WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? [¿Quién Puede Matar a un Niño?] – 9 p.m. Jan. 28

OK, this isn’t exactly New Spanish Cinema, but never mind. Get ready for some scary stuff, kids, when maniacal children terrorize a vacationing British couple on a remote island in Narcisco Ibáñez Serrador’s 1976 cult-fave horror thriller, which was heavily censored for its American release back in the day under the title Island of the Damned.

LOVESTORMING [No Controles] – 4 p.m. Jan. 29

Aided and abetted a motor-mouthed former classmate and an array of eccentric strangers, heartbroken Sergio (Unax Ugalde) tries to win back his ex-girlfriend with the heartiest of New Year’s Eve parties in Oscar-nominated filmmaker Borja Cobeaga's rambunctious comedy, a recent box-office smash in Spain.

HALF OF OSCAR [La Mitad De Oscar] – 7 pm Jan. 29

Manuel Martín Cuenca's austere and moody drama of dark secrets and frayed family ties plays out against the windswept beach and mountains of Almeira. Oscar (Rodrigo Saenz de Heredia), a taciturn security guard in a semi-abandoned salt mine, has his routine interrupted by the not-entirely-welcome reappearance of his sister, Maria (Veronica Echegui), who arrives from Paris pregnant and with a French boyfriend (Denis Eyriey) after a two-year absence. Nothing good comes of this.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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