Genre: documentary
El Rey De Rock 'N' Roll
Directed by Marjorie Chodorov
with: Robert Lopez, Lena Marie, Pinky Villandry, Jose David Saldivar, Pierre Smith, Crissy Guerrero, Michelle Habell-Pallan, Ruby Blackstock, Michel Chanelle, Jimmy Evans, Armando Paul Bustomante, Kristian Hoffman
Runtime: 57 min
Genre: documentary
Color: Color
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2002
REVIEW BY RICH CLINE 
This fairly entertaining documentary about the Latino Elvis impersonator El Vez
is notable in the way it explores the entire idea of instant celebrity. Robert
Lopez quite literally stumbled into this career, and it's quite interesting to
watch the way he handles it, creating a fully formed character and then going
far beyond the obvious comedy value to use El Vez as a mouthpiece for political
and social awareness. The performance footage is a bit rough around the edges
(very home-video in sound and picture quality), which is unfortunate and results
in the musical side of things getting a short shrift. And director Chodorov only
skims the surface of Lopez's personal life; even though what she touches on is
fascinating, we want to know far more about what drives him ... and what he does
when not in character (which doesn't seem too often). She also doesn't really
deal with the schizophrenic life of a character performer--Lopez is two
completely different people, in and out of costume, and we get lots of people
observing that fact, but no one ever grappling with the idea. Even so, it's very
interesting, often funny, and Lopez in either guise is a charismatic presence.
With a bit of polish in the production and just a little more probing in the
question-asking, this could be a very strong doc indeed. [language, themes]
10.Mar.02