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today's world of around the clock global news
coverage, one gets the sense that all too often
the news media has been growing desperate for
material to fill airtime, and that this has given
rise to an increasingly graphic and questionable
predatory style of journalism. And as much as we,
the audience, wag our fingers in disdain and
repugnance, we show our tacit acceptance by
watching it endlessly. In the film
"Cronicas", director Sebastián Cordero
takes aim at this new brand of journalism,
exploring the nature of truth in reporting and the
media's ability to color the perception of that
truth.
Chameleon actor-comedian John Leguizamo
("Spawn," "Summer of Sam")
plays Manolo Bonilla, a Miami-based reporter for a
Spanish-language tabloid news show called "An
Hour With The Truth." Manolo is the kind of
reporter who fancies himself an adventurer, and
likes to have his face on camera with fantastic
events taking place behind him. When the film
opens, we see Manolo, along with his producer
Marisa (Leonor Watling, "Talk to Her ")
and cameraman Ivan (José María Yazpik,
"Nicotina") in
Ecuador
covering the funeral of three children, the latest
victims of a notorious serial killer known as 'The
Monster of Babahoyo.'
Moments
after Manolo has secured an interview with one of
the dead children's brother, the boy is
accidentally run over and killed by a traveling
Bible salesman named Vinicio (Damián Alcázar,
"Men with Guns"). The enraged mob drags
Vinicio from his truck and beats him to within an
inch of his life, with Manolo and his crew filming
the event right up to the point where the crowd
douses Vinicio with gasoline and sets him on fire.
It's at this point that Manolo heroically steps in
to rescue the poor man -- just in time to be
captured on camera doing so.
With
his impending lynching still a looming threat,
Vinicio bargains with Manolo to use the
fame-seeking reporter's considerable public
influence via his TV show to secure freedom in
exchange for some choice information about The
Monster. Thus begins a cat and mouse game between
Manolo, Vinicio, and the police, with Vinicio
preying on Manolo's ego with surprisingly detailed
stories about The Monster, whom Vinicio claims to
have once picked up when the killer was
hitchhiking. Easily suckered in by the idea of
becoming the hero that exposed The Monster, Manolo
struggles to keep the increasingly suspicious
police at bay.
The beauty of "Cronicas" lies in the
details, such as in the brilliant opening scene,
where we see Manolo and Marisa sizing up the
mourners to see who would be the best interviewees
in order to achieve maximum impact. Meanwhile,
Ivan the cameraman is moving a grieving mother out
of the way so that he can get a better camera
angle. There's also the interplay between Vinicio
and Manolo, as both try to get the upper hand
during their interviews.
The
intensity and uneasy atmosphere in the interview
scenes are heightened by an excellent performance
by Damián Alcázar. Alternating between poor,
whimpering victim and steely-eyed antagonist, Alcázar
makes you shed a tear in sympathy and makes your
skin crawl within the same sentence. Also good is
Leguizamo as the smarmy motor mouthed reporter who
wants to do the right thing, as long as he'll make
out okay in the end. The comedian-actor finds the
right balance between dedicated camera ham and
self-appointed champion of justice, his
Nuevayorquino Spanglish adding an amusing touch of
street-wise authenticity to the role.
It's hard to think of Manolo's similarity to FoxNew's
Geraldo Rivera is purely accidental. Rivera is a
reporter who has come under fire repeatedly in his
career for questionable ethics in pursuit of a
story, an accusation he usually rebuts with
sanctimonious self-aggrandizing. And so it is with
Manolo, even as it becomes increasingly clear that
Vinicio is more than he seems. When questioned by
Marisa and Ivan on the new discoveries, Manolo's
justification is that the police will get the
information when the story breaks, so no harm is
done in the meantime.
Unfortunately,
the movie loses much its steam the instant its big
secret is revealed about two thirds of the way in.
The rest of the film is about filling in the
details which, while compelling, can't match the
energy of the build up. But this wouldn't be as
big a deal if the film knew what it wanted to be.
Unfortunately Cordero seems to be confused as to
whether his film is a thriller or a satire, and
while he skillfully throws in elements of both,
neither serves the other, resulting in two halves
of two different movies that don't quite mesh
together into a satisfying whole.
As
"Cronicas" moves along on its
predestined course, Cordero sticks with his
undercurrent of skewering the news media for its
moral hypocrisy, culminating in a final scene that
is both sickening and satisfying. To that end,
"Cronicas" is an engaging film with a
strong cast, and it's unfortunate that its own
heavyweight subject matter is undone only by its
lightweight feel. |
