Gilbert Saldivar, Jorge Burgos, Kimberli Flores
“SHINE” My rating: C
95 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Funded by a Kickstarter campaign and conceived as a tribute to the indigenous but threatened culture of NYC’s Spanish Harlem, “Shine” is a heart-on-its-sleeve musical melodrama that excels when it sticks to music and flounders when it goes for drama.
Unfolding in a corner of Manhattan where Puerto Rican flags outnumber Old Glory by about 5-to-1, writer/director Anthony Nardolillo’s tale centers on two brothers whose lives take diverging paths.
In a prologue we see the boys’ childhood and their training in salsa dancing by their nightclub-owning, band-leading father (David Zayas). The two grow into accomplished dancers, strutting their stuff like Latino John Travoltas.
But a family tragedy intervenes, and the film jumps seven years forward. One of the brothers, Ralphi (Jorge Burgos), has gone to college and now works for a big British redevelopment corporation that’s trying to get a foothold in Spanish Harlem. He’s sent back home to do some community massaging, to win over neighborhood leaders on behalf of gentrification and to stop a series of arson attacks on the company’s properties.
His brother Junior (Gilbert Saldivar) regards his interloping sibling as a traitor. Junior, in fact, is one of those gasoline-flinging vandals.
And, oh yeah, there’s a girl (Kimberli Flores) in the middle.
Little by little Ralph comes to realize the errors of his way. How to save his old neighborhood?
Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!
Butler's Cinema Scene 