The Top 100 Project

Welllllll, let’s go and shake (or stomp) it up in our 354th edition as we chit chat about Ritchie Valens, the beloved Mexican-American teenaged pop star whose career was cut tragically short. With the ending of a fateful plane crash hovering over the whole story, it’s probably inevitable that writer/director Luis Valdez was not going to make a fun movie, but we had a lot of giggles in this podcast anyway. And we sang…often! Yay? Lou Diamond Phillips is miscast as Ritchie for several reasons (we get into all that), but he’s still quite terrific, as is the entire cast (especially Esai Morales as his jealous, alcoholic brother Bob). On the very bright side, this movie about Hispanic people was mostly made by Hispanic people, which might be why it feels so authentic. So lift up your chin in a cool “hey, how are ya, bro” manner and root for these underdog Valenzuelas. Well, Actually: Pan’s Labyrinth is about Spanish characters, but the filmmaker in charge (Guillermo Del Toro) is of course proudly Mexican. Also, th