Book of the Week

Now that I have read Rick Najera's autobiography Almost White: Forced Confessions of a Latino in Hollywood, I owe him an apology. I never realized how much of a struggle he had with his various projects before I read this book and though part of me wants to be still skeptical, I have a greater appreciation for his work now than I did before. Of course, it would have been nice if Najera's own work had made such apologies unnecessary but you can't have everything.

Anyway, I can't guarantee that I will like his next film project but I would like to read his next book.

I'm Dreaming of a Latino Christmas Movie

Geez, one would think that if Hollywood was going to wait until the 21st century to make a Latino Christmas movie, they would at least get it right. Not that 2008's Nothing Like the Holidays was a bad movie. It just was not the instant classic I kinda expected after all the hoopla I read about it.

The movie itself was about a family of Puerto Ricans and their assorted significant others who were gathering for a family Christmas celebration in Chicago. The father (played by Alfred Molina) was a bodega owner who might or might not be having an affair. His wife (played by Elizabeth Peña) was contemplating a divorce. One of his sons was a returning veteran who had issues with the girlfriend he left behind while yet another son was having issues with his white non-Hispanic wife. Though many scenes in the movie were neatly done -- the trailer had led me to expect a far broader comedy than ever turned up on screen -- it was still depressing to note how familiar some of the plot elements were: a murdered sibling, a non-Latin wife, a spouse who may or may not be unfaithful, an old girlfriend who may or may not have been pregnant with a certain family member's illegitimate child... To be fair, things improved toward the end but for a while there the movie seemed all too predictable.

Moreover, certain details were off. I could not help but wonder why a Puerto Rican would have the first bars of a Mexican folk song as a tune on his car horn and why Alfred Molina's character used the same Spanish term of endearment for his wife that I used to use for my Mexican grandmother. Granted, even the best screenwriters can't know everything, but given that one of the movie's screenwriters -- Rick Najera -- was Latino, I kinda expected a bit more than the same old Hollywood hand wave.

It is to the cast's credit that the movie is still watchable. (Though I must confess that seeing former I Married Dora star Elizabeth Peña as a would-be grandparent was almost as shocking to me as seeing her former co-star Juliette Lewis appear on an episode of My Name Is Earl.) Indeed, I found the movie to be a pleasant enough time-waster. But I hardly doubt I will be visiting it again next winter. And is not the whole point of a holiday movie that you wish to see it over and over again?

Maybe they will get it right next time.

“There are 40 million Latinos in the United States today...

...And Rick Najera is determined to tell the story of each and every one of them.”

At least that's how a line goes in the end credits for Latinologues and Latinologues 2. Not really a bad sentiment at that, even if the stories themselves seem to lean rather heavily upon the very stereotypes they're sending up.

The most poignant of the stories thus far are “The Janitor” (about a Dominican janitor whose life is disrupted by 9/11) and “Cuba Libre” (about a Cuban prostitute who is desperate to escape Cuba). However, most of the stories don't aim for poignancy as much as mere humor and some -- like the one about the Salvadoran mother with a vampire son -- are little more than outright farce.

The result is not really bad. In fact, I can't help but wonder what Najera will come up for the inevitable Latinologues 3.

However, if you're expecting deep social insight from these shows, don't hold your breath.