Sueno (2005)

The Worst Film Ever

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie was very sweet, but the script was out of the 1930s: Boy comes up from Mexico with music in his soul to make it here in the music world--meets up with obstacles--gets help along he way--falls in love--we get to hear some great music in the process--and, uh oh--he has to decide between fame on his own and what TRULY matters:his love for own music and sticking with his original band. Guess what? He makes the right choice..the band stays together..they win a big contest..he wins the hand of his sweetheart...guitars play in the background/the lead sings..and the movie gently ends.Unfortunately, all this happens as we've seen it happen hundreds of times before. So, even though the actors were good (and oh so earnest), and the music was great--it wasn't new enough for an adult audience to stick with. I think young adults would like it a lot, though--they haven't seen the plot before so the actors and their music would certainly entice them.John Leguizamo deserves a special mention. He stole the movie and was the reason that I watched it until the end--even though the plot was so banal.

This is my all-time favorite movie about music/dancing. Well, it wasn't about dancing, but it's hard to separate the two into different genres.My previous favorite was Dirty Dancing, and the music in that one was, of course, superb. But this movie, "Sueno" ... Do we not all have dreams? The tragedy of not pursuing one's dream cannot be calculated. I carried away a great message from this film. I rented this movie from Netflix, liked it so much I then bought it from Netflix. The entire cast was superb, starting with John Leguizamo who gave an Academy Award caliber performance. He was Absolutely fantastic, as was Ana Claudia Talancon, who may be the most beautiful woman in the world.

I like John Leguizamo (Executive Decision, Moulin Rouge!,Land of the Dead), and he is really believable in this film. He seems to really take on the character of a young Mexican immigrant who just wants to play music.Elizabeth Pena (Lone Star, Rush Hour, Transamerica) was also very good as the singer who no longer believes in herself. Pena and Leguizamo support each other to the top.Having said that, this was more of a music video than a movie. Sure, there was the attraction between Leguizamo and Ana Claudia Talancón, and the fantasy dance they did was so hot I wanted a cigarette after watching it, but it was just a minor part of the film, which was 95% music.Nestor Serrano (Girls in Prison, City by the Sea) was also very good as the band's manager. And, I sure want to see more of Erica Munoz.

Oh, dear. This movie is unintentionally one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. If it weren't so serious about itself, I'd put it in Christopher Guest territory. But unfortunately, this movie takes itself SO seriously that it can't see how flawed it is, both cinematically and practically. The one scene that had my boyfriend and I rolling on the floor was the band practice with Antonio's first band. One minute the boys backing him up are in their own band, "on the way up." The next thing you know, they've let this Antonio kid come in and take over. In what we must assume is their FIRST practice, sweet, sincere Antonio turns into a complete asshole, actually SHOVING his brand new guitar player because he doesn't like the way the guy plays! Egos fly, it nearly comes to fisticuffs, but the "manager" steps in with a Brady Bunch speech and Antonio and his new guitar player shake and make up. None of this would EVER happen in a band. Never. Unless, of course, the band is comprised of retarded monkeys in heat. Then, it might happen.This is just one of about a million cookie cutter clichés in the movie. Each and every scene in this movie is a "Ye Olde Shoppe" version of reality: of Mexican culture, of young love, of fear and uncertainty, of the desire to put something meaningful into the world, and all the other "human conditions." It's completely unbelievable, and what little charm it might have had is completely destroyed by the extremely limiting script, which tries to tell too many stories without an ounce of continuity or building of relationships. Just like we never get to see Superman actually transform, we never get to see any of these characters develop, or fall in love. They simply state their "suenos" to the camera, step into a phone booth, and emerge transformed. Example: the big contest is three days away. In three days, Antonio finds a band, the band fires him, he finds another band, convinces his reluctant neighbor (a single mom with two kids) to join up, learns some original material, and then shows up at the audition just as they're supposed to go on, and then they get up their and play like they've been together seven years and have just emerged from having a nice quiet beer in the green room. Never happen.A lot of the music was really great, though. But a lot of it was, again, stereotypes of music genres sung by Latinos, seemingly to prove to the world that Mexicans can be hip to rap, garage rock, cock rock, funk, and math rock. The overstating of it through clichés made it feel like a propaganda poster, and slightly offended my boyfriend, a rockabilly band front-man who also happens to be Mexican. He didn't know he had anything to prove.