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Nueba Yol Movie Review

Nueba Yol is a 1995 Dominican dramedy film directed by Angel Muniz and starring Luisito Marti. It is a pretty fun, though rather uneven flick.

A young immigrant seeking prosperity in the United States finds love with a woman about to return to the Dominican Republic. This Dominican movie is a very strange beast. It functions simultaneously as a serious drama and as a very silly comedy and it didn’t quite work in balancing those opposing tones.

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The themes are serious as we see a man from the Dominican Republic try so hard to adapt to the life in New York, which he calls Nueba Yol in what is one of the funniest movie titles you can find. The cultural differences are well explored and the movie truthfully depicts how difficult adapting to a different country really is.

But on the other end of the tonal spectrum, you’ve got a very comedic tone where the protagonist cannot acclimate and he does some silly things while being in the city. Luisito Marti is very good in the main role, but the problem with his central character is that he felt too much like a sitcom personality.

Watching this film, you’d think that it was a sequel to a television series that ran for many seasons and it concluded with this movie. It has that cheap, limited in appeal feel to it that never went away, but in fact became more pronounced with each passing sequence.

Nueba Yol is also not all that cinematic as the technical aspects are only serviceable. The score is the highlight as it was lively and a lot of fun, but the cinematography is only okay and the directing from Angel Muniz is serviceable at best and subpar at worst.

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The movie has a lot of charm in its character interactions and some witty dialogue. It is difficult to not be swept away by its endearing tone and the protagonist’s naiveté and likability. I just wish that the plot and tone were better handled and more sophisticated.