oscar run iii: maria full of grace (joshua marston, 2004)

Maria Full of Grace isn't a great movie ... it's a decent movie, effectively low-key, which I suspect is why it's so highly touted, similar movies generally having an overamped quality to them. Catalina Sandino Moreno IS great, and is far and away the best reason to see the movie.

I imagine the movie is a Rorschach of your feelings about the drug trade. I can picture someone watching this film and thinking it proves that drugs are awful and need to be eradicated. Me, I thought it proved drugs should be legalized. No one should have to go through what the title character does, and if drugs were legal, no one would.