Author: Hugo Pagan Soto

I Am Not Your Negro from Raoul Peck

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In 1979 an idea was born in the mind of James Baldwin. In a letter he explained to his agent that his next project, titled “Remember This House,” was going to encompass meetings with three of his closest friends: Medgar Evers (1925-1963), Malcolm X (1925-1965), and Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968). At the time of his death in 1987, Baldwin left behind an unfinished 30-page manuscript. With the documentary I Am Not Your Negro (2016), filmmaker Raoul Peck seeks a kind of closure for the unfinished work.

Read More

SLY: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I remember when I started writing about cinema. One of those first articles was about my action movie heroes. SLY (2023), the documentary that covers Sylvester Stallone’s film career, made me return to that moment and the motivation that generated that crude writing. Those celluloid heroes that Hollywood spawned were my favorite refuge for years and there I always ran into that Stallone. It is impossible to imagine the history of cinema without Rocky, without Rambo, without Cobra, without Tango, without John Spartan…

Read More

Oppenheimer The Destroyer of Worlds

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Oppenheimer is the twelfth feature film in the work of English director Christopher Nolan. A lot has changed since 1998 which saw his debut with Following, a work that has gained a cult status over the years. But Memento (2000) was the film that would put him on the radar of many moviegoers and would open the way for him to the Hollywood industry where Nolan has reaped all his successes ever since.

Read More

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One: The Legend of Tom Cruise

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Mission Impossible is a registered trademark, one of the most important franchises in movie history. The adventures of that Ethan Hunt the eternal Tom Cruise, can be compared to those of the legendary James Bond. This saga was inspired by a television series that ran from the mid-60s to the early 70s that came to the big screen at the hands of Brian De Palma in 1996. That first installment is still one of the best movies in the franchise. Now comes Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh in a saga that has gained new life with the last three proposals.

Read More

Exploring the Profound Depths of Au Hasard Balthazar

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Legend has it that the inspiration came from The Idiot. But not just any idiot but the one that Dostoevsky gave birth to. Bresson found his muse reviewing the pages of the classic novel and especially that moment in which Prince Myshkin reflects on the braying of a donkey lying on the ground. From there was born what is today considered one of the masterpieces of cinema, Au Hasard Balthazar. For Robert Bresson, this would be his seventh feature film, as if fate had wanted to wink at the perfection of seven. Movies like A Man Escaped (1956) and Pickpocket (1959) had already put his name in the spotlight.

Read More