Happy Birthday, Catalina Sandino Moreno
This entry was posted on 4/19/2008 12:05 AM and is filed under Birthdays,Musings.
It's a happy birthday to
Catalina Sandino Moreno, who turns 27 today. Moreno of course broke big in 2004's justly lauded
Maria Full of Grace, about a pregnant Colombian teenager who becomes a drug mule in order to make some desperately needed money for her family. She and writer-director Joshua Marston shared a lot of prizes for the film, including
the Los Angeles Film Critics' New Generation Award.
Since then Moreno also made strong impressions in both
Fast Food Nation and the underrated
The Hottest State (above), from
writer-director Ethan Hawke, while at the same time knocking out some quasi-gritty, straight-to-DVD fare like
Journey to the End of the Night. Unfortunately,
those three films were seen by a combined 150 people, so Moreno's rising star has for the moment stalled.
That said, it's not a talent issue.
Moreno is quite good with softly withholding, and with a little more practice and opportunity could surely branch out into spitfire roles (it's much harder to go the other way). Of course, it doesn't help when you have chauvinistic posts like this one, exploiting her
Hottest State nudity. But, errr... that is her hottest state, right? No shame there. Roles opposite
Benicio Del Toro in
Steven Soderbergh's highly anticipated Che Guevera biopic two-fer (
The Argentine and
Guerrilla, which will likely screen at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival) will surely help. But I'd love to see Moreno, who has a really lovely smile and sweet disposition, get hold of her own
27 Dresses,
The Nanny Diaries or
The Devil Wears Prada; she'd be great, and it would justly introduce her charms to a wider, Anglo audience.
