Mixed Blood (1985 film)

Mixed Blood
Promo sheet for Mixed Blood
Directed byPaul Morrissey
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyStefan Zapasnik
Edited byScott Vickrey
Music byCoati Mundi
Production
companies
  • Sara Films
  • Set Satellite
Distributed byCinevista
Release date
  • 18 October 1985 (1985-10-18) (US)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Mixed Blood is a 1985 black comedy film directed by Paul Morrissey and John Leguizamo's film debut.[1]

Plot

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Rita La Punta (Marília Pêra) leads a gang of Brazilian juvenile delinquents in an attempt to seize control of New York's Lower East Side's illegal drug trade from a Puerto Rican gang.[2]

Principal cast

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Actor Role
Marília Pêra Rita La Punta
Richard Ulacia Thiago
Rodney Harvey Jose
Linda Kerridge Carol
Geraldine Smith Toni
Angel David Juan
Roberto Luis Santana Assassin

Critical reception

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The film received generally positive reviews.[3]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote:

Paul Morrissey continues to be a cinema original and his ''Mixed Blood,'' a most unorthodox look at life in the drug trade on New York's Lower East Side, is successively comic, brutal, primitive and sophisticated—a comedy with the manners of a live-action cartoon for jaded adults.[1]

Morrisey's former collaborator Andy Warhol stated in The Andy Warhol Diaries:

Paul's movie Mixed Blood is playing midnights at the Waverly ... And I just loved the movie. It was everything he's done before, but it was photographed well and he seemed to know so much about the Lower East Side and the Alphabet—avenues A, B, C, and D—for someone who hadn't been in New York for so long.[4]

Sid Smith wrote for the Chicago Tribune:

Although still fairly crude, the movie has more style than Morrissey's earlier pictures, and the lovely salsa score provides a biting undertone and subtlety Morrissey once avoided. It's not a perfect picture, and sometimes it's a boring one, but ''Mixed Blood'' is a fairly successful neo-realist look at something most moviemakers wouldn't go near.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Canby, Vincent (18 October 1985). "SCREEN: TOUGH COMEDY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  2. ^ McElhaney, Joe (3 January 1986). "Paul's Movie: Mixed Blood". desistfilm. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  3. ^ Kehr, Dave (26 October 1985). "Mixed Blood". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  4. ^ Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (1989). The Andy Warhol diaries. The Archive of Contemporary Music. New York, NY : Warner Books. p. 706. ISBN 978-0-446-51426-2Entry date: Friday, January 3, 1986{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ Smith, Sid (18 May 1986). "'BLOOD' IS IN CLASSIC MORRISSEY VEIN". Chicago Tribune.
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