Cronicas English / Spanish Horror Movie 2009
Cast And Crew
Cast: Damián Alcázar, John Leguizamo, José María Yazpik, Leonor Watling
Director: Sebastián Cordero
Cronicas (English / Spanish)
Genre: Thriller / Drama / Horror
General Release Date: 22 Oct 2009
Running Time: 1 Hour 38 Minutes,
Distributor: Golden Screen Cinemas
Synopsis
Starring John Leguizamo as TV reporter Manolo Bonilla faced with a journalism dilemma; Cronicas is a suspenseful thriller that questions who the true monster is: the criminal, the media, or our society? Manolo Bonilla is a star reporter for a Miami-based tabloid TV show who is determined to unearth a serial killer that hunts children in a small town in Ecuador. But how far will Manolo go to get the story? The closer he gets to uncovering the truth, the more he finds his carefully planned story spinning dangerously out of control. An examination of journalistic ethics, the film explores the willingness of the media to surrender its morals for a shot at fame and profit.
The Plot Summary
The hot and humid village of Babahoyo, Ecuador is besieged by an elusive serial killer. The police have no clues but this mystery has become an obsession for Miami-based tabloid television reporter... The hot and humid village of Babahoyo, Ecuador is besieged by an elusive serial killer. The police have no clues but this mystery has become an obsession for Miami-based tabloid television reporter Manolo Bonilla (John Leguizamo) who is convinced breaking this story will make him a star. Bonilla has traveled to the remote village with his producer, Marisa (Leonor Watling) and cameraman, Ivan (José Maria Yazpik) to cover the story for the tabloid TV show "One Hour With The Truth". Manolo has dubbed the killer as the "Monster of Babahoyo" on the show and is determined to uncover the killer's true identity. Tension in the town reaches a boiling point when Vinicio Cepeda (Damián Alcázar), a poor traveling salesman, accidentally runs over a child, and an angry mob led by the child's father, Don Lucho (Henry Layana), attacks him in the streets. Both Vinicio and Don Lucho are arrested. Manolo, who happens to be present during the incident, interviews both men inside a jail teeming with violence. Vinicio tells Manolo that he has information about the "Monster," but in exchange for it, he wants Manolo to do a story exposing his unjust arrest to sway public opinion. After checking out Vinicio's information, Manolo immediately suspects that Vinicio himself could be the killer, but chooses not to tell the corrupt local authorities; he'd rather use the information to make a great story for his show. How far will Bonilla go to get his story? Where is the line between a journalist revealing the truth and inventing it? How powerful is the media? Palm Pictures and Anhelo Productions present CRONICAS, written and directed by Sebastián Cordero (RATAS, RATONES, RATEROS) and produced by Alfonso Cuarón (HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN) and Jorge Vergara (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN) and Guillermo del Toro (HELLBOY), Bertha Navarro and Isabel Dávalos. The executive producer is Frida Torresblanco.
In the sometimes savvy media melodrama "Crónicas," John Leguizamo plays Manolo Bonilla, the charismatic star reporter for a tabloid investigative news show, "One Hour With the Truth," that originates in Miami and is broadcast across Latin America. A swaggering little fame monger ablaze with ambition and hot to pounce on the next gory sensation, Manolo descends with his producer, Marisa (Leonor Watling), and his cameraman, Ivan (José María Yazpik), on the dirt-poor Ecuadorian village of Babahoyo.
Cronicas Hollywood Movie Review:
Manolo has come to interview the relatives of three local children who were slaughtered by the notorious "Monster of Babahoyo," the television nickname for a serial murderer of children who rapes and tortures his victims before killing them.
His arrival coincides with the return to Babahoyo of Vinicio Cepeda (Damián Alcázar), a scruffy, soulful-eyed traveling Bible salesman. Driving into the village, Vinicio accidentally strikes and kills a young boy who darts in front of his truck.
Aghast and guilt-stricken, Vinicio backs his vehicle away from the body. But as he does, he is set upon by villagers swarming around the scene, who assume he was trying to escape. Already hysterical over the killings, they drag him from his truck, and the victim's father, Don Lucho (Henry Layana), furiously slops gasoline over him. A match is tossed. Manolo's crew films it all.
This harrowing scene of mob violence and an attempted lynching under the eye of the camera makes a great beginning. The reluctance of these tabloid news hounds to intervene says it all about live television's icy voyeurism. Anyone who has observed a news crew in action will recognize the sense of entitlement and the high-handed attitudes of jaded media types who act like God's handpicked snoops as they nose around in downscale environments where they are both adored and feared.
He coyly claims to have information about the Monster of Babahoyo. As Manolo coaxes out his story, Vinicio tells of meeting the killer in his travels and hearing his boastful confession. To prove he's not making it up, he directs Manolo to a burial site where the crew finds a girl's body but refrains from telling the police.
The movie begins losing credibility at the point at which "Crónicas" narrows to an ambiguous cat-and-mouse game played by the egomaniacal reporter sensing the scoop of his life and the prisoner whom Manolo immediately suspects is the mass murderer. Although the screenplay throws in obstacles and contradictions to deepen the texture, "Crónicas" never regains a secure footing.
Nothing that follows in "Crónicas" (the word means chronicles, or news reports), which was written and directed by Sebastián Cordero, lives up to this initial tableau of chaos, grief and media intrusion. Although the fire is put out and Vinicio and his attacker are both jailed, the village is still in an uproar, and the chances that Vinicio will escape vigilante retribution seem slender. When Manolo, pursuing the incident for a story, interviews Vinicio in prison, the desperate Bible salesman tries to bargain with the reporter to shoot a segment that might influence the judge to set him free.
We meet Vinicio's new wife, Esperanza (Gloria Leiton), and her young son from a previous marriage, Robert (Luiggi Pulla), to whom Vinicio is a devoted caretaker. Meanwhile, Manolo dallies with Marisa, who is married to the all-powerful news anchor in Miami; the fate of the story being prepared changes from hour to hour as Manolo resists pressure from on high to leave Ecuador and pursue another story in Medellín, Colombia. A strait-laced police captain, Bolívar Rojas (Camilo Luzuriaga), does his feeble best to take charge of the investigation that Manolo has commandeered for his own career ends.Watch online Movie Trailer free Cronicas Spanish film .The film Directed by Sebastián Cordero
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