Abuelita wields the almighty “chancla ” with experience and fortitude in COCO. Photo: Disney-Pixar   Review by Alci Rengifo Coco is that kind of family film that manages to tackle a tricky subject with heart and sensibility. Disney and Pixar have scored yet another visual achievement here, but this one is particularly notable for the way it uses Latin American culture to explore themes of death and memory. Visually, it is an enrapturing movie. The iconography of Mexico’s Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tradition is used with elegance and fun, capturing the tradition’s unique mixture of remembrance and celebration. The kind of romance associated with Latin folk culture is beautifully celebrated with dramatic energy. But this is a warm-hearted movie that probes deeper into the meaning of family and independence. It dives into Mexican culture with infectious gusto and joyous music, but its central narrative has a universal power. The story is set in the rural Mexican to...

By Alci Rengifo, Staff Writer/Associate Editor In an age when big budget, multiplex cinema is saturated with special effects behemoths, indie filmmaking is tackling what matters. Such is the case with Dante Betteo’s The Other Barrio , a gritty pulp noir that explores gentrification in San Francisco. Filmed in stylish tones and gothic shadows, The Other Barrio is a detective story with a clear, cutting social message. It also vibrates with a proud Latino identity while celebrating the overall diversity of a city, beset by corporate interests. The film’s story follows a San Francisco housing inspector named Roberto Morales (Richard Montoya), who finds himself investigating a suspicious fire at a residential hotel in the Latino Mission District. A native of The Mission, Morales laments the take over of his boyhood home by expensive condos for tech workers, this as local residents are being slowly pushed out. Morales suspects the fire, which has killed seven people, can be tied to t...