E-Mail This Article to a Friend CRÓNICAS

SPANISH + ENGLISH | 108 MINUTES | KENDALL SQUARE

In Latin America, it would appear, the profession of TV news reporter is still respected. In Sebastián Cordero’s Crónicas, Ecuador greets Manolo (John Leguizamo), the star of a Miami-based news program, like a hero. He seems up for the role in the film’s opening, a dynamically shot and cut lynching that captures all that is stunning, horrible, and irresistible about such TV moments. But both he and the film lose steam as they devolve into formula. A prisoner tells Manolo he knows the identity of a serial killer and offers an exclusive if Manolo will help spring him. Manolo thinks the guy himself is the killer and tries to manipulate him into an on-air confession. Obvious ethical problems arise, but Manolo is no match for them, and Crónicas collapses into facile cynicism.