AllMovie

Eric Eason's debut feature Manito is a lively and affectionate portrait of one dysfunctional Puerto Rican family, but in the end the film devolves into melodrama. With storytelling skill and agility, Eason introduces the Moreno family, letting the audience get to know his characters and revealing key information at a naturalistic pace. He's aided by a talented cast, including the energetic Franky G. as Junior, a uniquely charming scoundrel. Franky G.'s performance is one of the real pleasures in the film. As fast as Junior can talk, the actor lets us see that he's not quite as slick as he thinks he is and it's amusing to watch him slip out of one jam after another, knowing that it's just a matter of time before he's tripped up. Junior is a likeable but deeply flawed young man. The power of his love for his diligent younger brother is inextricably linked to the rage he feels toward their negligent father. Leo Minaya's charismatic performance as the shy, but intelligent Manny is much more low-key, but equally engaging. Eason's entertainingly grungy film, shot on digital video, has room for a number of strong supporting characters and captures a lot of comic detail. One particularly memorable visual gag has Junior picking up a group of illegal Mexican workers for a construction job. They're all wearing dress shirts and bow ties from their most recent work in a restaurant and Junior later tries to tell his client that his crew always dresses up for the first day of a job. For most of its length, Manito is an exemplary urban drama, with flashes of wit and dark undertones. But at the end, when Eason's narrative veers into the fatalistic, it seems more a bow to genre conventions than anything organic or heartfelt.