Mi Quinceanera [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2006-10-13 rating:
Tales from Echo Park
At the end of my review of Director/Writers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's first nationally distributed film, I wondered aloud as to what these talented, quirky guys would do after the fun, I only steal from the very best movies take on the Gay Porn Industry and the hangers-on that populate it,"The Fluffer." Well now I know: it's the very human, thoughtful and real "Quinceanera." br /Shot in a section of Los Angeles just 10 minutes from where I live yet on many levels worlds apart socially and ethnically, and reeling and rocking from the mixture of Mexican-Americans, who have lived there for many years and the Upscale Interlopers in the form of Non/Mexican Americans who go to Echo Park looking for homes that they can afford now that the Westside of Los Angeles is way beyond most peoples means. Glazer/Westmoreland's take on this Cultural and Monetary disparity is to step back, aim the camera and refuse to take sides: both the Inhabitants and the Interlopers are examined carefully and without judgment. br /The central story involves the impending Quinceanera (a sort of Bat Mitzvah) of Magdalena (a strong, fiery Emily Rios), her "miracle" pregnancy and Carlos (an angry, intelligent Jesse Garcia) who happens to be Gay which does not sit well with his father who promptly ejects Carlos from his home: both Mag and Carlos find acceptance and Love with their Great Uncle Tomas...the emotional center of his family and of this film, Chalo Gonzalez. br /"Quinceanera" is not a perfect film: the flaccid editing hurts the last third of the film but despite this, few film scenes have as much emotional power and pack such a wallop as Carlos's ( and therefore, of course, Jesse Garcia's) eulogy at Tomas' grave-site, in front of a family that mostly despises him because he is Gay: it is on the one hand brave and on the other as heartbreaking and emotionally open and naked a scene as any committed to film in a long, long time. br /

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Video . DVD Blu-ray . Categories . Drama
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Video . DVD Blu-ray . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . Spanish

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