Highly Relevant With Jack Rico

Film and culture critic Mike Sargent joins me to discuss the Gina Rodriguez anti-black debacle, the Tom Brokaw anti-Latino statements on Meet The Press, and why M. Night Shamalan’s new film 'Glass' is reviled by critics but adored by fans. (1:28)We also talk to Hugo Balta, President of the NAHJ to help me tackle the bloodbath that took place this past week with over 1,000 journalists who were laid-off. What should unemployed Latino journalists do now, how do journalism students stay hopeful of the media industry and we discuss how he dealt with the Tom Brokaw news as President of the NAHJ and being a Senior Producer at MSNBC. (24:17)Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscrib

Awards season expert Clayton Davis from AwardsCircuit.com joins us to discuss the 2019 Oscar nominations (10:25) and the newly minted Latino Entertainment Journalists Association (1:55), which he founded. I’ll talk to him about what would happen if Roma sweeps the Oscars… will it quiet Latino critics who claim prejudice by the Academy? Also will actress Yalitza Aparicio’s nomination break down doors for indigenous faces in film and TV?Then we chat with versatile bilingual actor, singer and host Carlos Ponce (38:43) about his new co-starring role in Telemundo’s “Jugar con Fuego”. We talk about attracting a bilingual viewer to Spanish TV, the value of returning to your Latino roots after crossing-over, and why he thinks “Jugar con Fuego” will be a word of mouth hit.

This is episode 100, and to celebrate, we brought in the biggest director in Hollywood at the moment - Alfonso Cuarón (3:19). He'll discuss ROMA, why critics love it so much and Jack reveals to him his favorite scene. Also, Nicole Acevedo joins the show to discuss her article from NBCNews.com about how Latin music sales have surpassed Country albums (10:30). Then we finalize with Mexican director Manolo Caro who talks to us about his latest comedy "Perfectos Desconocidos". (28:53)Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thanks for taking the time out to listen this week. This week we had a lot fun talking to Michael Longoria, Latino singer/actor/dancer who has performed on Broadway’s Jersey Boys as Frankie Valli and many Broadway shows, plus, is a current member of musical group The Midtown Men. He’s now out with a new Christmas album called Merry Christmas Darling and I talk to him about how he carries his cultural identity and how it’s shaped him to be the person he is today. 

Film and culture critic Mike Sargent discusses Steve McQueen’s female heist film 'Widows' and Mark Wahlberg’s family film 'Instant Family' just in time for Thanksgiving. (0:48)Then we chat with Elisabeth Rosario, founder of the LatinX newsletter The LatinX Collective to discuss why you should subscribe to a newsletter, LatinX culture and why there’s a dearth of Latinos in Silicon Valley. (18:53)Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Basil Tsiokas, the program director of DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, joins us to speak about this year’s LatinX documentaries and why so many LatinX stories are starting to be made (1:06). And if you’re going to the movies, film and culture critic Mike Sargent talks to me about two new releases - Hugh Jackman’s political drama The Frontrunner and the WW2 horror-action film Overlord (16:09). Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Music journalist Isabela Raygoza joins the show to discuss about the new trend of English-language mainstream artists singing in Spanish. Why are they doing this and will Hispanic audiences embrace it?Then we speak to Chilean writer Jose Ignacio Valenzuela, mostly known for writing telenovelas such as "La Casa de al Lado on Telemundo," he has a new book out called To The End of the World, the first book of a new original trilogy which has been compared to the likes of Harry Potter.Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Film and culture critic Mike Sargent joins us to discuss two recent movie releases - VENOM and A STAR IS BORN. One we loved and one we hated. Take a guess at which ones which.We also give you a quick recap on the most highly relevant entertainment stories of the week.

Matt Tyrnauer is the director of the new documentary STUDIO 54, which he calls the definitive documentary on the legendary nightclub. We talk why STUDIO 54 co-creator Ian Schrager broke his silence, why the magic of the club was never able to be replicated, and how Schrager overcame jail time to become a hotel magnate. Then I chat with A Star Is Born actor Anthony Ramos, who plays Lady Gaga’s best friend in the film many critics are calling the best movie of the year. We discuss what director Bradley Cooper saw in him, the madness of his time on Broadway’s Hamilton, and after having already worked with giants Lin-Manuel Miranda and Lady Gaga how he has managed to stay grounded and ambitious.Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Cli

Miguel Sirgado is the editor-in-chief of ¡HOLA! USA, one of the most important Hispanic magazines in the US. We discuss his bilingual strategy for reaching today’s highly divided US Hispanic, what the criteria is for defining a Hispanic celebrity (for example is Bruno Mars Hispanic?) and why he was at one point hesitant in taking the job. Then we chat with Alonso Ruizpalacios, the Mexican director of MUSEO, one of the best reviewed Latino films of 2018 starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Him and I explore why he wants to make movies for people who shun predictable endings and why Mexico is more interested in celebrity than its own countries problems.Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here t

We review The Predator with film and culture critic Mike Sargent (1:17) and we examine the controversy behind the film. Then I talk to film journalist Clayton Davis (21:23) who was at the Toronto International Film Festival and tells us what films have already positioned themselves as the frontrunners for Best Picture at the Oscars.Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

This week, we talk about Netflix’s hit show EL BARCO (The Ship). Its from Spain, spoken in Castillian and Jack's wife will be telling us why the show is so engrossing! Plus, four trailers were released this week, between movies and TV shows, that will be talked about all year. Which ones are they? Listen in!

RottenTomatoes overhauled their eligibility rules to allow more diverse critics to be heard. What sparked the idea behind the new ruling, what took them so long, and will Spanish-language reviews continue to be allowed on the site? (3:50)Then we chat with Latina journalist Victoria Leandra who co-wrote a recent Bloomberg article on why Latinos still don’t have a movie on the level of Crazy Rich Asians or Black Panther. Is it a lack of talent or is it prejudice? (17:29) Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Rolling Stone Magazine Latina music journalist, Isabela Raygoza, joins us to discuss how US Latinas owned the MTV VMA’s this year (1:05), but what does that say about the dismissal of Latin-American artists? We also talk about that Maluma performance (8:09) that has left some scratching their heads, including me. We’ll break down the good and the bad of Maluma in the VMA’s. Then… how many of you have heard the rule that you can’t bring food into a movie theater? Is it true or a massive myth? I called 3 big movie chains and asked them point blank about their food policy (22:07).Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Marysol Castro was recently named Major League Baseball's first Latina PA announcer and the first female PA announcer in Mets' history. Before this new adventure, the NY native of Puerto Rican parents, began working at WPIX TV in NYC doing traffic reports, later returning to anchor, then becoming the weather anchor at Good Morning America on ABC, The Early Show on CBS and ESPN. She discusses with us the different opportunities she's been given, how she's adapted to them, the rejections of her profession and the traits she's used to bounce back stronger than ever.Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Latino cinema is once again in vogue and film critic Carlos Aguilar (1:47) stops by to give us his choices for the "3 Best Spanish-Language Movies of 2018 So Far." And Ekundayo Bandele (28:49), founder and executive director of the Hattiloo Theatre, one of only four freestanding black theatres in the nation, who speaks to the hurdles and solutions the African American community faces in the arts in the US.Episode notesLatino film critic Carlos Aguilar recommends: ZAMA (Argentina), TODO LO DEMÁS (México), COCOTE (Dominican Republic)Reach outWould you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Matthew Bakal, CEO and co-founder of the movie-ticket app Atom Tickets stops by the show to talk about why his 2 year old app is the future of movie-going and why it’s different than Moviepass (1:00).Also, culture and film critic Mike Sargent and I meet up at the press screening of Disney’s new family film Christopher Robin, a live-action Winnie the Pooh movie and we give you our immediate first reactions of the film (23:00).

Actress and producer Luna Lauren Velez who you’ve seen many times on TV in her roles on DEXTER, OZ, UGLY BETTY and HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER to name a few, plus her film roles in CITY HALL with Al Pacino, the recent horror film THE FIRST PURGE and the upcoming remake of SHAFT with Samuel L. Jackson. We catch up with her to discuss her new film American Adrift about opioid addiction in a Latino family, how social media has become a necessary evil for working actors and the new American optics of being Puerto Rican in this country. (26:55)Also, film and culture critic Mike Sargent (Fox Business News, PBS, WBAI Radio) gives us a visit to review Tom Cruise’s much hyped movie Mission Impossible: FALLOUT… should Tom Cruise stop doing his own stunts at 56, what makes an action film epic? and… could FALLOUT be the best of the Mission Impossible franchise. (1:38)Episode SummaryLuna Lauren Velez interview Her big break "I Like It Like That" Rita Moreno How she you got into acting What kind of stories she wants to tel

Luis Miguel Echegaray, Head of Latino Content at Sports Illustrated, joins the show to share who he thought had the better World Cup TV coverage - Telemundo or FOX - as well as the factors behind the ratings drop, and why Hispanic teams had a terrible turnout this year. (1:00)Also, film and culture critic Mike Sargent joins me to debate SKYSCRAPER, the new homage to 70’s disaster movies starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. I think it’s the worst movie of the year, while Mike lauds it for how enjoyable it was. This leads me to the question… when does the line blur between a “bad” movie and “bad fun” movie?Would you like to get in touch with us? Email us at highlyrelevant@showbizcafe.com and help us spread the word on social media:TwitterFacebookInstagramIf you enjoyed this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and please subscribe!Ways to subscribe to Highly Relevant with Jack Rico:     • Click here to subscribe via iTunes    • Click here to subscribe via Spotify    • Click here

Carmen Cabana and Mike Sargent joins us to chat to chat cinematography and 'Ant-Man & The Wasp' respectively.