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WASHINGTON HEIGHTS Send This Review to a Friend
This drama by director Alfredo de Villa represents another step in the effort to make more films about the lives of Latinos in America. The setting is New York City's Washington heights, and the story focuses on two families, one Dominican, the other Irish. The plot is somewhat overwrought and melodramatic, but there is truth in the characterizations and in the depiction of the surroundings in which the sons of immigrants grow up and wrestle with family responsibilities versus getting out from under.
Manny Perez plays Carlos Ramirez, who works in the production of comic books, but is hoping to hit it big with a comic strip idea of his own. He is saddled with the need to run his father's bodega after his father is paralyzed in a robbery. Carlos's friend Mickey, played by Danny Hoch, heads down the road to trouble when he steals money that he intends to aid his pal's aspirations and also give him a lift toward his own future. The scene is set for tragic results.
The movie has many rough edges, but its impression of truthfulness in the way its characters and milieu are presented goes a long way toward making it worthwhile and a reason to watch what de Villa does in the future. From MAC Releasing.
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