PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Phillipa
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
haterofcrap
This movie was pretty boring...It was pretty slow and nothing interesting happens here...The only good thing about it was the music. The music of this film was so incredibly good, that is the only reason why I'm giving this movie 4 stars instead of the 1 star score that it deserves for being so boring and flat.Seriously, this is one of the most boring films ever made, the only good thing of this film it's the incredible music. If it wasn't for the incredibly good music, it will a complete waste of time, just like many other bland and forgettable documentaries.The music it's the only good reason to see this film.
Keith F. Hatcher
I have not enjoyed a music film so much since `West Side Story'. Basically my musical preferences reside in classical music, but not at the cost of excluding other kinds. Such that in my collection of records and CDs I have music from Tomás Luis de Victoria to Vangelis. And a little jazz: not much, it is true, but the likes of Miles Davis or Dizzy Gillespie did not pass through this world unnoticed. Whereas I can sit through an opera or even 100 minutes of `Le Grande Messe des Morts' by Hector Berlioz, I tend to take certain kinds of music such as jazz in smaller doses, so that I do not get tired of it. Paco de Lucía, Janis Joplin, Dave Brubeck, John McLaughlin's Friday Night in San Francisco
. Fine: but not more than about 30-40 minutes. So I was a little worried about sitting through 100 minutes of `Calle 54'. On the one hand, I do not mind watching an opera, though preferably when listening to the great classics I am at home with my own equipment; but on the other, I love WATCHING jazz musicians! They seem to be having such a great time! You grunted along with Garner, thrilled at Armstrong when he got his trumpet going, and you felt the vibes the same as they did.Fernando Trueba is a bit like me: you do not listen to music with your ears; you feel it with the whole of your body. At home I often get up and take a little stick and conduct the record I am listening to. Other people dance to music. I don't: I have to feel the music and make out I am directing the orchestra! `Calle 54' is a pure joy from start to finish. It's a feast for the eyes and ears and all the adrenalin and corpuscles, which race around up and down finger-fired keyboards and sensual saxes, and throbbing with batteries and pulsing double-bases. And then there is the camera-work: six of them always on the move, closing in, panning out, every kind of imaginable angle, focussing on fingers caressing chords or dancing over sax and piano keys or following the sticks up and down the xylophone
and then the miraculous task of editing all that, piecing all six together. Carmen Frías has done a wonderful job, indeed. And she declares she was not even a knowledgeable person in the world of jazz! Virtually all of it was from first takes; practically nothing was later `doctored': thus it all came out hot, just as it should be heard, not nicely rehearsed and then sewn together such that afterwards that would be what it would sound like rehearsed and sewn together. This Latin version of Afro-American jazz is an impressive document; from Río and Cuba and Puerto Rico, from Cádiz and Sweden to New York, Fernando Trueba has pieced together this delicious, delightful `concert', a real treat, a once-and-forever: some of the musicians taking part, like Tito Puente, have since died. Am I glad Sr. Trueba got in there in time to bring us this invigorating gem!
taylor9885
This is a fine collection of performances. I enjoyed Tito Puente's segment most--it's a nice farewell to a great musician. He evokes the men who preceded him, like Mario Bauza, Machito and Chano Pozo (whose conga playing on records with Dizzy Gillespie was a great joy of my teenage years). Bebo Valdes was also wonderful; alone, or in duets with his son Chucho or with Cachao. The only sour note was provided by the schlockmeister Gato Barbieri, purveying dull world music (does anybody remember the soundtrack album for Last Tango In Paris? that was great make-out music from Gato).I liked this a lot more than Carlos Saura's banal flamenco and tango films, which were the last gasps of a dying filmmaker.
silvia_plath
Calle 54 is a small gem for music lovers. Well structured and easy to follow, it allows the viewer to get lost in the beautiful and evocative sounds of Latin Jazz. Special and rare appearances by the greats of the genre make the film even more unique.