"I Like It Like That"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                         WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL
                             October 29, 1994

   I've been away for the last couple of weekends taking advantage of the rich
treasure of interesting films by feminist filmmakers that is finding its way
to Florida this Fall. First there was Vietnamese-American writer and filmmaker
Trinh T. Minh-ha  who came to Tallahassee for the statewide Women's Studies
Conference with her films "Ressamblage" and the new "Shoot for the Contents."
Then last weekend I was in St. Augustine for the Women in German conference to
see German feminist filmmaker Jutta Brueckner who brought four of her films
with her including a very impressive one made in Argentia called "Ein Blick
und die Liebe Bricht Aus." Closer to home, next week is the 1994 Cine World
Film Festival in Sarasota and there are a number of interesting films by women
filmmakers on the program: Probably the most interesting is a film called
"Erotique" which is three short films by three outstanding women filmmakers,
Lizzie Borden, Monika Treut, and Clara Law giving their own interpretations of
erotic experie nce from a woman's point of view. That will be screened at
10:45 p.m. on Saturday, November 5. Earlier that day there will be a film
called "El Crimen de Cuenca" by Pilar Miro who is Spain's foremost woman
director. While next Friday night we'll have a chance to see a film by
Argentina's leading woman director, Maria Luisa Bemberg; it's called "I Don't
Want to Talk About It" and stars Marcello Mastroianni. All of these will be at
the Burns Court Theater in downtown Sarasota. Call (813) 388-2441 for
information. So you see, when it comes to the diverse world of women in film,
if you're willing to put a little mileage on your car, Florida's practically
"the place to be" this Fall.

   Even our regular Tampa theaters have a contribution to make to diversity of
women in film this week. There's a film playing here made by a new
African-American director about the life of a Puerto Rican woman from the
Bronx. The film is called "I Like It Like That," the director is Darnell
Martin, whose feature film debut this is although she has worked closely with
Spike Lee on some of his features. The subject of the film is Lisette, a young
New York Puerto Rican woman. At one level this film goes right along with
Leslie Harris's "Just Another Girl on the IRT" and Alison Anders's "Mi Vida
Loca" as a film about women of color in an urban setting, adding Puerto Rican
to the mix of ethnicities. But it adds another slant, as well; the characters
in "I Like It Like That" are a bit older than either Harris's or Anders'
characters so we get a look at a somewhat different set of economic and social
concerns. Lisette (played by Lauren Velez) is probably in her late twenties
and has been married to Chino for ten years and is the mother of three
children ranging in age from 8 to 2. The combination of the miserable job
opportunities open to Chino (he supports the five of them as a bicycle-riding
messenger boy) and the Latino machismo that makes him prefer that she go on
welfare (after he goes to prison for stealing a stereo for her) than to take a
job herself keeps Lisette in a state of self-doubt and frantic helplessness.
The only person who advises and consoles her and urges her to find a way to
get financial independence is Alexis (Jose Borrego), Lisette's preoperative
transsexual brother. Lisette, in a burst of self-assertion and cleverness,
manages to land a job as assistant to a white music video producer who
specializes in Latin music. Since Lisette knows all about the performers and
what she likes them to look like, she manages to do well and make the boss
look good. But when he drives her home in his Lamborghini at 4:00 a.m. the
neighborhood buzzes and Chino's "pals" soon come to jail to tell him his
 wife's fooling around, and his mother (Rita Moreno) urges him to own up to
his paternity of the child of a woman whose family owns a grocery store so
they'll bail him out and give him a good job working in the store. Lisette's
new-found self-confidence and economic independence make this scenario play
out differently than it otherwise would have and, for feminists, it's a joy to
see how she changes.

   It's also a joy to see Darnell Martin's wonderfully energetic and
imaginative shotmaking. She whips through the introductory, expository parts
of the film with such fast-paced economy of story telling it's amazing. Her
camera is as likely to be on the ceiling as on the floor when she has an
emotional point to make. The feel of the film for the South Bronx neighborhood
seems to be right as it captures not only the problems and social blight but
the energy and connections between the people who are at home there. This is a
very good film and Darnell Martin's a great new talent.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.                                                                   s

Linda Lopez McAlister is Professor of Women's Studies and Phil-
osophy at University of South Florida in Tampa.

Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not
reprint this review without the permission of the author.