Like a new jazz album that you want to share with friends, Calle 54 is the sort of film that transcends analysis in favor of the non-verbal joys of a music concert.
Narration is brief and largely irrelevant.
You will either lose yourself in these sensuous Latin rhythms, as director Fernando Trueba obviously has, or it will seem like a long series of music videos. The format is simplicity itself. Trueba, who has the enthusiasm of a recent convert, sketches in an introduction to the dozen or so musicians he has hand-picked to showcase. Both in his camera work and in his editing choices, Trueba matches the musical rhythms to his cinematic portraits. The visual aspects are impressive, if you bother to notice, but Trueba would rather you merely get lost in an appreciation of the music.