Blu-rays, DVDs & more
eBay affliate link
Art of the Movies
Buy posters on MoviePoster.com
IMDb
Cantante, El movie stills
Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: What is it about the biopic genre that gravitates toward the same sea of cliches, no matter what the sound or era? Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Marc Anthony plays the smack-addicted singer, who has some dynamite numbers but not much to say for himself. Read more
Ted Fry, Seattle Times: El Cantante has nerve but can't follow through on the edginess of its intentions. Read more
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Cantante introduces intriguing, relevant themes one minute, only to abandon them the next. Read more
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: You're watching Jennifer Lopez, but you may as well be watching a female impersonator impersonating Jennifer Lopez. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Where's the ambition? Where's the passion? Read more
Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle: The film's first half is an uneven string of scenes that offer little setup and sometimes confuse. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Still, the musical numbers, which constitute a hefty portion of screen time, are thrilling. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: El Cantante never nails the ecstatic moment of musical collaboration we crave from this genre. Where is the scene that gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of salsa's creation? Read more
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: A conventional, brassy blat of a biopic. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Lavoe was a gifted and original singer and song interpreter, but this film is unlikely to spread the word. Read more
Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News: Nothing gets explored at length, and some key points are glossed over altogether, namely Hector's out-of-wedlock son and his frequent womanizing. Such factual details would demoralize Puchi. They are merely mentioned, then ignored. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: The vibrant music ultimately takes a back seat to the cacophonous lady at the film's misplaced center Read more
Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Director Leon Ichaso (Piero) uses every trick in the hack biopic book, including flashback stock footage and montages of newspaper headlines flying toward the camera. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The awkwardly told story of salsa legend Hector Lavoe, El Cantante doesn't even get the title right: It should have been called La Esposa, since it's really less about the singer than his wife. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A downer of a musical biopic that leaves no cliche unturned. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: J-Lo really delivers the goods. I haven't always been a fan, but she makes this movie a must-see. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The movie's good intentions and great music win out. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Directed with palpable passion and terrific period feel by Ichaso, El Cantante has camerawork and editing that move with the 4/4 rhythm of salsa, upbeat even when the drama grows downbeat. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The director (Leon Ichaso) and his co-writers haven't licked a crucial question: Why do we need to see this movie and not just listen to the music? Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: El Cantante disintegrates into a stylized jumble -- even a straightforward jumble would have been preferable. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Throughout El Cantante, we're told repeatedly that everybody loves Hector, though why they should love him is a mystery. For fully two-thirds of the film, there isn't enough there either to like or dislike. Read more
Mark Lepage, Globe and Mail: El Cantante has to legitimize its subject before it can immortalize him; and in the effort, it makes the mistake of letting a star get in the way of the truth. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: This may be one of the very few biopics in which the subject is marginalized to the point of irrelevance. Read more
Wally Hammond, Time Out: This messy, maudlin portrait of the decline and decline of Puerto Rico-born salsa star Hector Lavoe wavers uncertainly between cable channel biopic and socially concerned drug movie. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: The music is the uncontested highlight of El Cantante, which tells the story of the tragic life of salsa legend Hector Lavoe. Read more
Robert Koehler, Variety: A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, pic suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus. Read more
Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: A garish, dispiriting bit of work. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Ironically, Lavoe's sad story serves mostly to remind viewers that Lopez is still the dazzling force of nature that burst onto the screen a scant 10 years ago. Read more