"Dirty Cues" Serves Up The Laughs

Every time I see the opening scene of The Poseidon Adventure with the late, great comic actor, Leslie Nielsen, at the helm, I think to myself, “Please turn this fine, serious disaster film into a silly spoof of a disaster movie like Airplane! You’ve already got Leslie Nielsen in the cast for goodness sake.”

Comedy is hard to do. Good comedy is even harder to do. It isn’t enough to write funny jokes or lines. Delivering those droll lines with the right flair and comedic timing is a much-underappreciated acting art form. Just ask Cary Grant His classy performances in countless, memorable light comedies was never acknowledged with an Oscar.

Leslie Nielsen, the once serious actor became the master of deadpan, comic acting. As Lt. Frank Drebin in Police Squad, Nielsen delivered his lines with all the thespian gravitas of Laurence Oliver performing a soliloquy from Hamlet, with hilarious results.

The synopsis of Dirty Cues, a new web series on Latin Heat Cinema’s growing menu of diverse, entertaining, streaming attractions offered on Latin Heat Entertainment. reads: When a Colombian cartel starts laundering money through Spanglish movies in Hollywood, a rookie FBI agent must play the role of a lifetime.” Oh no!” I once again thought to myself, “Not another violent, bloody, melodrama about a drug cartel. I’ve already seen La reina del sur four times. Loved it and especially loved Kate del Castillo. But enough already!”

Well, truth be told, I can’t get enough of Kate del Castillo. But that’s a topic for another article.

Back to Dirty Cues. Thankfully and happily, Susie Lohse and César Camiño, the creators of this original web series, are taking a smart, campy, and very funny look at a very troubling and topical subject; money laundering by drug cartels in the USA.

Javie, a Colombian narco trafficante, is running a Spanglish language movie studio in Hollywood as a money laundering operation for his drug kingpin boss. Javie’s studio turns out Spanglish movie knockoffs for the Hispanic community. Example: Fifty Shades of Gray is re-packaged as Fifty Shades of Azul. In addition to the usual headaches a studio boss deals with, Javie’s ditzy, trophy wife, Mazy, wants to have a baby. Problem is, this Latino Lothario’s equally ditzy mistress, Cherry, is also very demanding of his personal “attention.”

In one amusing moment, Cherry confronts Javie on his lack of fidelity to their extra-marital affair.

“I’m faithful to you Javie,” she whines pitifully, “But I know you are not faithful to me.”

Javie protests innocently: “Cherry, I’m married.”

Meanwhile, a rookie FBI agent, Daniel, has infiltrated the studio posing as a cameraman. He becomes smitten with a struggling screenwriter, Anya. Daniel’s partner, Edith, a veteran FBI agent, cautions Daniel not to get involved. Ignoring her own advice, Edith accidently finds herself in the middle of a scene rehearsal and reads for a part. She gets the acting bug and later confides to Daniel:

“I’m an agent in need of an agent. I gotta get some representation.”

Travis, the studio enforcer who is suspicious of Daniel and thinks he might be a mole, warns him with pitch-perfect, icy, cold-blooded menace:

“I’ll be watching you like a pedophile in a Chucky Cheese.”

What a great line! Wish I’d written it.

Dirty Cues’ short episodes are, without exception, laced with witty repartee, goofy gags, raunchy double entendres and clever, cultural references. In tone and tenor, Dirty Cues has many similarities with the old Comedy Central cop show spoof, Reno 911, which was a personal favorite of mine. Dirty Cues is a highly watchable, madcap romp with some zany characters through the world of drug cartels by way of Hollywood. Kudos to creators, Susie Lohse and César Camiño

Let’s face it kids, we will need all the laughter we can get the next four years. Thanks to Latin Heat Cinama, Dirty Cues will serve up more than its fair share of welcome comic relief. Somewhere, I’m sure Leslie Nielsen is watching Dirty Cues and chuckling with delight, approval and pride.

Watch Dirty Cues, along with Leslie, on Latin Heat Cinema.

Close "Encounters" of the Brief Kind

My father died this past June. Sadly, we had a diffuclt relationship and never communicated on a meaningful level. Even during his decline, when I spent a lot of time with him, we did not become closer. However, towards the end of his life, he revealed a long-kept family secret. He off-handledly remarked in a moment of weakness, that he had fathered a daughter out-of-wedlock. A daughter whose existence had been swept under the family carpet for sixty years.. I had a half-sister!

I found my half-sister a few days before Dad passed away. Unfortunately, I was not at his bedside when he died quietly in his sleep. in his home with family and friends around him. But he left us with so many unanswered questions. So many things I wanted to find out from a father, who I apparently, didn't know at all.

I wonder how one last conversation with my father might have gone after he had passed to the other side.

My situation is not unique. As a matter of fact, I've found out that it is more common than people like to acknwledge

Miguel Torres, the creator of the award-winning web series Encounters, has fashioned a powerful, dramatic storytelling platform to explore those haunting questions. Torres, like a latter-day Hispanic Rod Serling of Twilight Zone classic TV fame, outlines the premise of Encounters in the series trailer, as well at the beginning of each episode.

The Encounters episodes, produced by Angel Flight Media and True Form Films, are short teleplays,

vignettes, snapshots, beautifully composed in a cinéma vérité style. The acting is understated and restrained. And despite the supernatural theme of the stories in Encountgers (conversations with the dearly departed) the productions are totally devoid of eerie special effects or CGI magic. This conscience decision to shun artifice in favor of strong storytelling is the emotional foundation of Encounters. All these elements come together nicely in my favorite episode to date titled: The Moment Between the Lights.

In this story of guilt following a night of drinking and driving, director Chris Banda masterfully uses the natural, nighttime, film noir atmospherics of LA to frame this dark, moody meditation. Two young friends drive around at night, talking. One of them is responsible for the death of the other. During the course of this 11 minute play, the dialog shifts from wistful, boyhood nostalgia, personal regrets, anger, accusations and finally, forgiveness.

I identified so much with this particular episode, I sent the link to my best friend. We had spent many a night in our long ago youth driving around downtown San Jose. Luckily for us, without the same tragic results.

Encounters is an almost entirely Hispanic enterprise; production, writers, directors, cast, crew. All the brief teleplays take place within the context of the Latino community. However, the Latino culture and occasional use of Spanish in the dialog, is just the backdrop for the universally recognizable themes that resonate in every culture. Encounters examines tough subject matter like sexual abuse, suicide and a mother's guilt over the death of her child, without lapsing into melodrama or arch, soap opera theatrics.

Encounters has opened up a personal Pandora's Box of possible conversations with the people involved in  the family secret of my half-sister; my father, my sister's mother, our grandmother, and other family elders who managed to keep secrets better than the US government. They're all gone. They have so much 'splaining to do.

Watching Encounters can sometimes be a disturbing experience, but ultimately, it's a cathartic one because the compelling stories help us realize we are not alone.

You can encounter Encounters, as well as other fascinating web streaming features, on Latin Heat Cnema within the web pages of Latin Heat Entertainment online magazine.

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