The House that Jack Built is a 2013 family drama film starring E. J. Bonilla and Melissa Fumero.
The story revolves around Jack (E. J. Bonilla), he owns an apartment building that he bought and refurbished, he houses his extended family in the building rent free, his parents Carlos (John Herrera) and Martha (Saundra Santiago), his Grandmother (Judith Delgado), his sister Nadia (Rosal Colon), older brother Richie (Leo Minaya) and his wife Rosa (Flor De Liz Perez), and his two cousins Hector (Javier Muñoz) and Manny (Desmin Borges), his does this because his loves his family, and also because he wants to keep them together for nostalgic reasons, yearning for a time when everyone was happy and things were less complicated.
Aside from being the landlord of the building, he also runs a bodega that is actually a front for dealing drugs, his mother hears about this through gossip at the laundromat, and asks her son if this is true, he of course lies to her.
But despite this, Jack has morals, for example: when a drug addict tries to pimp out his young daughter in exchange for drugs, Jack beats up the junkie for even suggesting such a thing, even threatening to kill him if he does this again.
Tensions arise in the apartment building to the point where Jack has to meddle in everybody's affairs, his parents fight constantly due to his father being a drunk, Nadia is secretly a lesbian, which Jack cannot accept, almost to where he asks one of his friends to sleep with her, Richie doesn't like that Rosa would rather go out with her girlfriends instead of being home with him and their newborn baby, and the cousins bicker over the smallest of things, Jack also deals with his fiancée, Lily (Melissa Fumero) who prematurely picks out a wedding dress and tries to domesticate him, which is something he doesn't really want to do, preferring to keep things the way they are.
But when a rival drug dealer (Fidel Vicioso) wants to muscle in on Jack's territory, problems begin to surface, I won't spoil this part of the story, so you'll have to watch the movie for the outcome.
Everybody does quite well in their performances, this was definitely a good watch.
The film was directed by Henry Barrial, who does a pretty good job with the material. The script was written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez, who's best known for having written and directed the 1991 movie, "Hangin' with the Homeboys", this script was one of the last ones he had written prior to his death in 1995.
If you're a fan of Vasquez's work, you'd like this film.
The story revolves around Jack (E. J. Bonilla), he owns an apartment building that he bought and refurbished, he houses his extended family in the building rent free, his parents Carlos (John Herrera) and Martha (Saundra Santiago), his Grandmother (Judith Delgado), his sister Nadia (Rosal Colon), older brother Richie (Leo Minaya) and his wife Rosa (Flor De Liz Perez), and his two cousins Hector (Javier Muñoz) and Manny (Desmin Borges), his does this because his loves his family, and also because he wants to keep them together for nostalgic reasons, yearning for a time when everyone was happy and things were less complicated.
Aside from being the landlord of the building, he also runs a bodega that is actually a front for dealing drugs, his mother hears about this through gossip at the laundromat, and asks her son if this is true, he of course lies to her.
But despite this, Jack has morals, for example: when a drug addict tries to pimp out his young daughter in exchange for drugs, Jack beats up the junkie for even suggesting such a thing, even threatening to kill him if he does this again.
Tensions arise in the apartment building to the point where Jack has to meddle in everybody's affairs, his parents fight constantly due to his father being a drunk, Nadia is secretly a lesbian, which Jack cannot accept, almost to where he asks one of his friends to sleep with her, Richie doesn't like that Rosa would rather go out with her girlfriends instead of being home with him and their newborn baby, and the cousins bicker over the smallest of things, Jack also deals with his fiancée, Lily (Melissa Fumero) who prematurely picks out a wedding dress and tries to domesticate him, which is something he doesn't really want to do, preferring to keep things the way they are.
But when a rival drug dealer (Fidel Vicioso) wants to muscle in on Jack's territory, problems begin to surface, I won't spoil this part of the story, so you'll have to watch the movie for the outcome.
Everybody does quite well in their performances, this was definitely a good watch.
The film was directed by Henry Barrial, who does a pretty good job with the material. The script was written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez, who's best known for having written and directed the 1991 movie, "Hangin' with the Homeboys", this script was one of the last ones he had written prior to his death in 1995.
If you're a fan of Vasquez's work, you'd like this film.
