I was hoping, for the sake of the talent, crew, and Chicano people, that this film would be good. I was also hoping to be inspired by this movie. No such luck:
The writing was poor to mediocre, in spite of at least four credited writers. The plot moved slowly, the characters were stereotypical and uninteresting, and either the actors or director (or both) left me unfulfilled. The monologues (and there were many) were preachy and uninspiring. The editing was poor, and the musical direction even worse.
Both major trade reviews (Variety and Reporter) mention the nepotism behind this movie as an obvious shortcoming, so I'm not the only one talking about it. This poorly-made movie belies its own purported intentions in so many ways.
Walkout also reinforces the false notion that Latinos cannot be expected to make good films. Latinosand, more importantly non-Latinos who hold important walletscontinue to have low expectations of what Latinos are willing and able to accomplish when given multi-million dollar budgets, and access to a mainstream audience such as the viewers of HBO.
Even though Walkout is a lackluster effort reflecting the intentions of those who made it, it is Latinos as a whole who ultimately pay the real price. Because it's not like HBO is handing out multi-picture deals to other Latinos at the moment.
The writing was poor to mediocre, in spite of at least four credited writers. The plot moved slowly, the characters were stereotypical and uninteresting, and either the actors or director (or both) left me unfulfilled. The monologues (and there were many) were preachy and uninspiring. The editing was poor, and the musical direction even worse.
Both major trade reviews (Variety and Reporter) mention the nepotism behind this movie as an obvious shortcoming, so I'm not the only one talking about it. This poorly-made movie belies its own purported intentions in so many ways.
Walkout also reinforces the false notion that Latinos cannot be expected to make good films. Latinosand, more importantly non-Latinos who hold important walletscontinue to have low expectations of what Latinos are willing and able to accomplish when given multi-million dollar budgets, and access to a mainstream audience such as the viewers of HBO.
Even though Walkout is a lackluster effort reflecting the intentions of those who made it, it is Latinos as a whole who ultimately pay the real price. Because it's not like HBO is handing out multi-picture deals to other Latinos at the moment.