Cuban Fury

2014 - Dir: James Griffith - 1 hour 38 minutes
Shown at The FeckenOdeon on July 4th, 2014
This is a bit of fun for a summer Friday night. Light and frothy… so it’s interesting to find out that there’s a grain of autobiographical truth behind it. Leading actor and salsa sensation Nick Frost came up with the idea for the film because of his own frustrated fixation with dance. He always loved the idea of dancing on screen, but he was afraid to tell anyone. “It would haunt me,” he says. “Every now and again it would pop up and say, ‘You need to tell someone about me.’” One night he came home from a party and simply couldn’t keep his secret any longer. He sent an email and then fell asleep in his clothes. “I woke up the next day and my mouth was dry and I looked at my laptop and there was a reply reading, ‘This is a great idea. Let’s do it,’” Frost says. “I was terrified but it was also a tremendous relief.” In the movie it looks like Frost knows what he’s doing on a dance floor - and he does. He spent seven months learning salsa and even although “there were tears,” he knew he had to pull it off - if for no other reason than as the producer he’d committed to mastering the moves to get his dream project funded. “I’ve been in meetings where I’m saying, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll dance - don’t worry about me’ to get it green-lit,” he says. “It was only until half-way through month six that I was convinced I could do it”
Chris O’Dowd, last seen here in “The Sapphires”, is one of the busiest actors in the business. He has at least three projects on the go at the moment and co-wrote his recent Irish film “Calvary”… and he’s the voice of Dr Cockroach in “Monsters vs Aliens” on the telly. Ian McShane, who has made a career out of slightly seedy characters, has also been busy. He’s best remembered for Lovejoy (all 73 episodes of it) but since that last graced our screens in 1994 he’s never stopped working. Blockbuster or independent art picture, he’s in them all - He’s Blackbeard in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Captain Hook in Shrek and currently has no less than 5 films on the verge of release. Rashida Jones, though excellent in this film, has obviously been parachuted in to add a bit of appeal in the American market. She’s the daughter of Quincy Jones and stars on American TV in “The Awesomes”… whatever that is!
SO WHAT IS SALSA?
Salsa dancing originated in New York in the mid-1970s. It evolved from earlier dance forms such as "Cha cha cha" and Mambo which were popular in New York, and incorporated elements of Swing dancing and Hustle, as well as bits of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean dances such as Guaguanco and Pachanga.
There is some controversy surrounding the origins of the word salsa. Some claim that it was based on a cry shouted by musicians while they were playing their music. Other believe that the term was created by record labels to better market their music, who chose the word "salsa" because of its spicy and hot connotations. Still others believe the term came about because salsa dancing and music is a mixture of different styles, just like salsa or "sauce" in Latin American countries is a mixture of different ingredients.