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Movie Review: LAS TRES SISTERS (2025)
Hurry: road movie reaches the end of the road in San Diego today
Valeria Maldonado , Marta Méndez Cross, and Virginia Novello take a break from their adventures for a bad night’s sleep.
LAS TRES SISTERS (2025) Mar Novo. Writers: Marta Cross, Youssef Delara, Valeria Maldonado, and Virginia Novello / Photographer: Ivahn Aguilar Naim (2.35:1) / Design: Eduardo Tello / Editor: Youssef Delara / Music: Ryan Cross / Cast: Marta Cross, Valeria Maldonado, Virginia Novello, Cristo Fernández, Adam Mayfield, Maya Zapata, Pilar Ixquic Mata, and Hector Molina / Distributor: Myriad Pictures / Rated PG-13 / Running Time: 102 min.
Rather than splitting up to try their cinematic luck in separate features, real-life besties Marta Méndez Cross (Maria), Valeria Maldonado (Lucia), and Virginia Novello (Sofia) pooled their mighty talents to write and star in Las Tres Sisters, an ambitious indie road picture that exemplifies the notion that the miracle you pray for isn’t always the one you get. Growing up, the sisters spent many an hour together, listening as their abuela regaled them with a fabulous retelling of the six-day, 135-mile annual pilgrimage to the Talpa de Allende and the shrine of the miracle-working Virgin of the Rosary. That was then. Now, their loyalties have faded, but one of them needs a miracle to serve as the light at the end of the tunnel. And so the need for the trio to set aside past squabbles and retrace granny’s spoor has never been more urgent.
A substantial flash-forward finds Lucia (Maldonado) earning and then losing a partnership in a law firm in a matter of minutes, bawdy Sofia (Novello) unwittingly employing the services of of a gentleman of the night, and Maria (Cross) hugging the porcelain bowl as if rehearsing for her upcoming chemotherapy. Wanting to conceal her positive test for breast cancer, and desperate to unite warring factions, Maria fabricates a torrid, totally counterfeit love affair between her husband (Adam Mayfield) and another woman to justify the journey.
Director Mar Novo’s eye for geographical and cultural detail adds another feather to his cap: that of cinematic tour-guide. But fear not: this far-reaching, at times brutally observant (but still laugh-out-loud funny) adventure is much more than a mere travelogue.
Our leads are so convincing that one would swear they were actual siblings. The frank campfire exchange regarding bi-curious encounters is geared to startle, but feels like real sisterly intimacy about other sorts of intimacies. And from heart-wrenching confrontation to slapstick comic relief, each is given ample opportunity to rise to the occasion and put her chops to the test. True to The Three Stooges, and with a little help from a scorpion, las tres chiflados wind up sleeping in the same bed. Later, Maria’s deadpan tension-breaking excuse for smacking Lucia across the face gave me wet eyes. And what all-girl spiritual journey would be complete without a hunky, long-haired local to play the guardian angel/romantic lead (Cristo Fernández)?
It's not perfect: a hallucinogenic side-trip to a temazcal annexed one ritual too many. And the sweat box ceremony, designed to detoxify, was too forced to be believed and too inexplicably overboard to spur laughter. As for the inevitable, it’s handled in a manner that proves respectful to both the characters and the audience: with dignity and without words. 2025. ***
Here's something you might be interested in.
Movie Review: LAS TRES SISTERS (2025)
Hurry: road movie reaches the end of the road in San Diego today
Movie Review: LAS TRES SISTERS (2025)
Hurry: road movie reaches the end of the road in San Diego today
Valeria Maldonado , Marta Méndez Cross, and Virginia Novello take a break from their adventures for a bad night’s sleep.
LAS TRES SISTERS (2025) Mar Novo. Writers: Marta Cross, Youssef Delara, Valeria Maldonado, and Virginia Novello / Photographer: Ivahn Aguilar Naim (2.35:1) / Design: Eduardo Tello / Editor: Youssef Delara / Music: Ryan Cross / Cast: Marta Cross, Valeria Maldonado, Virginia Novello, Cristo Fernández, Adam Mayfield, Maya Zapata, Pilar Ixquic Mata, and Hector Molina / Distributor: Myriad Pictures / Rated PG-13 / Running Time: 102 min.
Rather than splitting up to try their cinematic luck in separate features, real-life besties Marta Méndez Cross (Maria), Valeria Maldonado (Lucia), and Virginia Novello (Sofia) pooled their mighty talents to write and star in Las Tres Sisters, an ambitious indie road picture that exemplifies the notion that the miracle you pray for isn’t always the one you get. Growing up, the sisters spent many an hour together, listening as their abuela regaled them with a fabulous retelling of the six-day, 135-mile annual pilgrimage to the Talpa de Allende and the shrine of the miracle-working Virgin of the Rosary. That was then. Now, their loyalties have faded, but one of them needs a miracle to serve as the light at the end of the tunnel. And so the need for the trio to set aside past squabbles and retrace granny’s spoor has never been more urgent.
A substantial flash-forward finds Lucia (Maldonado) earning and then losing a partnership in a law firm in a matter of minutes, bawdy Sofia (Novello) unwittingly employing the services of of a gentleman of the night, and Maria (Cross) hugging the porcelain bowl as if rehearsing for her upcoming chemotherapy. Wanting to conceal her positive test for breast cancer, and desperate to unite warring factions, Maria fabricates a torrid, totally counterfeit love affair between her husband (Adam Mayfield) and another woman to justify the journey.
Director Mar Novo’s eye for geographical and cultural detail adds another feather to his cap: that of cinematic tour-guide. But fear not: this far-reaching, at times brutally observant (but still laugh-out-loud funny) adventure is much more than a mere travelogue.
Our leads are so convincing that one would swear they were actual siblings. The frank campfire exchange regarding bi-curious encounters is geared to startle, but feels like real sisterly intimacy about other sorts of intimacies. And from heart-wrenching confrontation to slapstick comic relief, each is given ample opportunity to rise to the occasion and put her chops to the test. True to The Three Stooges, and with a little help from a scorpion, las tres chiflados wind up sleeping in the same bed. Later, Maria’s deadpan tension-breaking excuse for smacking Lucia across the face gave me wet eyes. And what all-girl spiritual journey would be complete without a hunky, long-haired local to play the guardian angel/romantic lead (Cristo Fernández)?
It's not perfect: a hallucinogenic side-trip to a temazcal annexed one ritual too many. And the sweat box ceremony, designed to detoxify, was too forced to be believed and too inexplicably overboard to spur laughter. As for the inevitable, it’s handled in a manner that proves respectful to both the characters and the audience: with dignity and without words. 2025. ***