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      Mixed Blood

      1985 1h 37m Crime Drama List
      Reviews 64% Audience Score 100+ Ratings On the mean streets of New York City, a dog-eat-dog mentality reigns among the destitute citizens. In one of the many abandoned buildings in the neighborhood of Alphabet City lives the Brazilian Rita La Punta (Marília Pêra), along with her delinquent son, Thiago (Richard Ulacia), and a gang of Hispanic teens charged with selling heroin and cocaine. When Rita and her young gang members get involved in a minor turf war, the violence escalates out of control, touching everyone and sparing no one. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

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      Neil Jillett The Age (Australia) Although Morrissey may be performing a service with this picture by warning of the dangers of unchecked urban decay, the evident pleasure he takes in doing so raises doubts about his motives. Nov 3, 2021 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Edgy to a point, but mostly filled with pointed black humor. Rated: A- Mar 12, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Likely my favourite movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Outrageous Paul Morrissey cult film is weird, funny and violent. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review dave j Monday, September 8, 2014 (1985) Mixed Blood ACTION CRIME DRAMA Low budget, and although interesting, it could've been better. The movie focuses on some of the worst slums called "Alphabet City", a slang name of a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. And depicting a point in time when crime was frequent since it was common knowledge that some of the NYC police were corrupt. Anyways, out of two rival gang factions competing for illegal drug selling, it sympathizes more on one of them lead by a lady who derived from Rio De Janeiro whose name is Rita La Punta (Marília Pêra) who happen to have a good looking son she calls Thiago(Richard Ulacia). Complications arise as soon as one of two rival gang member, Carol(Linda Kerridge) sought a liking to Thiago, Rita's second hand man, allowing the possibility for The German (Ulrich Berr) to take full control. Besides the budget being low, viewers would also have to endure many second rate acting. It explains itself well but could've been better. 2 out of 4 stars Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Andy Warhol's regular director, Paul Morrissey, brings this unimpressive attempt at black humor in a comedy of manners, telling the story about two street gangs in a turf war in "Alphabet City" on the lower east side of New York City. What's meant to be funny and clever simply comes across as amateurish and condescending to it's subject matter. Weak! Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member A gritty farce about gang warfare which does for "West Side Story" what director Paul Morrissey's later masterpiece "Spike of Bensonhurst" did for the "Rocky" and "Saturday night Fever" inspired Hollywood fantasies. Featuring a beautiful and distinctive cast (Richard Ulacia is framed exactly like Joe Dallesandro) of mostly non-professionals, artful Bressonian blocking. The opening sequence establishes a rhythm of exchanged and stolen glances which sets the pace for the music-of-looks that underline the characters relationships and suspicions of each other. Marilia Pera's mother figure/Brazilian gang leader is analogous to Ernest Borgnine's joyous mob boss in "Spike of Bensonhurst," and this is a similar social criticism and humored depiction of the triangulations necessary to maintaining a family amidst a crumbling social order and the strange and timeless relationship between race and the family unit ; also similarly racist (i.e. honest by today's standards) and moving as the latter film.The major difference is that with Mixed Blood Morrissey is more firmly tied to the formal design of his exacting blocking, as his young gang members march across the beautiful ruins of the lower east side tenements of 1984. The uplifting Carribean pop provides the hopeful frame to Morrissey's pessimistic and sardonic social view. A major sequence take place in a real nyc store devoted entirely to Menudo merchandise. The difficulty for critics to wrap their heads around Morrissey's work has much to do with how deeply permeating liberal humanistic truisms have become film culture. The final shot and exchange between mother and son is a perfectly articulated and poetic moment of abrupt limbo. Highly recommended. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member I am a great fan of Marilia Pera and she did not disappointed me at all in this movie. I really believe that some lines she delivered in Portuguese should have been translated, because they are really good and funny. The movie itself is tragically funny, but it is quite interesting to watch the East Village when it was a colored neighborhood. What a change... Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Mixed Blood

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis On the mean streets of New York City, a dog-eat-dog mentality reigns among the destitute citizens. In one of the many abandoned buildings in the neighborhood of Alphabet City lives the Brazilian Rita La Punta (Marília Pêra), along with her delinquent son, Thiago (Richard Ulacia), and a gang of Hispanic teens charged with selling heroin and cocaine. When Rita and her young gang members get involved in a minor turf war, the violence escalates out of control, touching everyone and sparing no one.
      Director
      Paul Morrissey
      Genre
      Crime, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (DVD)
      Feb 28, 2006
      Runtime
      1h 37m