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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Review: ' Cocaine Godmother'



There was a lot of hype leading up to last week's Lifetime premiere of "Cocaine Godmother." The biopic of notorious coke queen Griselda Blanco had been anticipated by many. For some, Oscar winner Catherine Zeta Jones was the selling point. Others may have been fans of 2006 documentary "Cocaine Cowboys," which focused much attention on Blanco's violent exploits.

The buzz continued on Twitter, and it was a bit mixed. Some Tweeters complained that the movie was all over the place. Others were in awe of Jones' portrayal of Blanco.

Well, Jones was pretty good as the erratic, drug addled crime lord, but the movie did seem a bit disjointed at times. It starts off (literally) with a bang as an adolescent Blanco is used as a prostitute by her abusive mother in Colombia. When a john doesn't pay up, a young Blanco shoots him dead. That's the audience's introduction to the titular character, who makes her way to the U.S. as an entrepreneurial drug smuggler. She woos gangsters and earns favor from drug lord Pablo Escobar. She also picks up a girlfriend Carolina (Jenny Pellicer).

Blanco proves she is not a woman to be trifled with. She has her son's girlfriend's father murdered and shows no mercy towards anyone who crosses her path. Her drug empire grows and her sons (Matteo Stefan, Jose Julian, Spencer Borgeson) become her principal henchmen alongside wise hitman Rudy (Alejandro Edda). With power, however, comes recklessness and an addiction to cocaine. She obviously didn't watch "Scarface" (which came out around the same time as the real Blanco's bloody reign). 

Hot on Blanco's trail though are DEA agents who are equally tenacious and determined to end her reign of terror.

Jones is cool in this movie (think a less salcious Angie Dickinson in "Big Bad Mama") with wild eyes, random tantrums and an indecipherable accents. Pellicer is understated as the girlfriend in the wings, who watches her lover spin out of control.

Blanco's story would have been better served in a mini-series, but this movie is a nice detour from traditional Lifetime fare.

"Cocaine Godmother": Directed by Guillermo Navarro; Starring Catherine Zeta Jones as Griselda Blanco, Raul Mendez as Dario Sepulveda, Juan Pablo Espinosa as Alberto Bravo, Jenny Pellicer as Carolina

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