<\/p>\n
The title of Michael Greene\u2019s coming-of-age music film \u201cClika\u201d refers to the slang word for \u201cclique\u201d in the terminology of the corridos tumbados<\/i> musical genre \u2014 or trap corridos, a distinctly American evolution of the Mexican storytelling ballads. This blending of musical cultures takes the narrative quality of traditional corridos and incorporates rap and hip-hop stylings, as well as uniquely modern Mexican American stories, as pioneered in large part by groups like Herencia de Patrones, a band out of Yuba City, Calif. Frontman Jay Dee makes his acting debut in \u201cClika,\u201d a film based in part on his own life story.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s producer is musica Mexicana record exec Jimmy Humilde, CEO of Rancho Humilde, and his intent with the project is to prove Mexican American stories worthy of the big-screen treatment. It\u2019s a noble endeavor, and an important one in this moment, in which Latino Americans are being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration. If Humilde and Greene get anything right with \u201cClika,\u201d it\u2019s asserting the importance of these stories in film, as Latino representation in cinema is often woefully lacking.<\/p>\n
It also introduces Jay Dee and his music to a wider and more mainstream audience. With a unique sound all his own, he will be a true discovery for some viewers, and an exciting screen debut for his already established fans.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the good news about \u201cClika.\u201d The bad news is that they probably should have made a documentary or a concert film to tell Jay Dee\u2019s story instead. Toward the end of \u201cClika\u201d we get a few clips of real concert footage, as Jay Dee\u2019s character, Chito, finally finds the musical success he\u2019s dreamed of, and it\u2019s so much more compelling than the hackneyed gangster tale they\u2019ve reverse-engineered into Jay Dee\u2019s life story.<\/p>\n
The problems with \u201cClika\u201d fundamentally come down to script issues. Written by Greene, Humilde and Sean Sullivan McBride (cinematographer and producer Ski-ter Jones also has a \u201cstory by\u201d credit), the film is a grab bag of clich\u00e9s we\u2019ve seen before, with an overreliance on dialogue and voice-over narration that exposes the inexperienced actors. The film tells without showing, its emotional stakes aren\u2019t legible and the characters explain to the audience what to think and how to feel without setting up the foundation or allowing us to get there ourselves. Some plot points make very little sense.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a standard hardscrabble coming-of-age story \u2014 kid from a small town with big dreams wants to escape a life of farm work (Jay Dee did pick peaches in Yuba City like Chito does) and pursue his goals. When his T\u00edo Alfredo (Cristian E. Gutierrez) learns Chito\u2019s mom (Nana Ponceleon) has fallen behind on the mortgage, he enlists his nephew for interstate marijuana deliveries to make the money to pay off the bank, and the young man gets too caught up in the fast life, rising to a point that will always be followed by a fall. The message that he ultimately takes away is that there are no shortcuts to success.<\/p>\n
The script is filled with tired tropes and doesn\u2019t set up Jay Dee in a way that showcases his natural presence or way with words. Comedian and podcaster DoKnow, who plays his friend and producer, is the only performer whose natural ease and charisma in front of the camera translate, and he\u2019s only given fairly corny and dated material, like ogling a sexy fellow peach-picker (Paola Villalobos) who is presented with her hair blowing in slow-mo like it\u2019s an \u201880s college sex comedy, not a gritty rags-to-riches tale.<\/p>\n
There is a way that this could have been done better, utilizing visual storytelling, establishing atmosphere and a sense of place that could have given a sense of the music, its large appeal and the circumstances that shaped it, while also allowing Jay Dee to shine in his own way. As it stands, he seems out of his depth here.<\/p>\n
Corridos are about storytelling, and the innovation of trap corridos is incorporating new stories and sounds into traditional music. It\u2019s a shame, then, that \u201cClika\u201d feels so stale, not matching the skill or style of its subject. Representationally, \u201cClika\u201d is an important and worthy film. Cinematically, it can\u2019t find the beat.<\/p>\n
‘Clika’<\/p>\n
In Spanish and English, with subtitles<\/p>\n
Rated: <\/b>R, for drug content, language throughout, and sexual material<\/p>\n
Running time:<\/b> 1 hour, 22 minutes<\/p>\n
Playing:<\/b> In limited release Friday, Jan. 23<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The title of Michael Greene\u2019s coming-of-age music film \u201cClika\u201d refers to the slang word for \u201cclique\u201d in the terminology of the corridos tumbados musical genre \u2014 or trap corridos, a distinctly American evolution of the Mexican storytelling ballads. This blending of musical cultures takes the narrative quality of traditional corridos and incorporates rap and hip-hop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2247841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Clika-review-Jay-Dee-stars-in-a-rhythmless-movie-about.com2F5f2F112Fd4f9db4e451492eec032d6c3.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247842,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247840\/revisions\/2247842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}