Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

QUINCEANERA (R)

MOVIE BIASES: None, but I've bartended at more than a few.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Emily Rios, Jesse Garcia, Chalo Gonzalez (The Wild Bunch), and writer/directors Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

With a title so ethnically specific, it'll be a miracle if it makes enough money to throw one halfway decent "My Super Sweet Sixteen" party on MTV, or if ten people outside of Latino communities even go see it. Here are 1000 words on why you should anyway.

In the transitional Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, where lower class Latinos are gradually being edged out by white yuppie gentrification, Magdalena (Rios) wants nothing more than a Hummer limo for her upcoming quinceanera like her other friends had, with their poofy dresses and cheesy videos made in honor of their fifteenth birthday party/womanly rite of passage. When her preacher father
Ernesto (Jesus Castanos-Chima) kicks her out of the house for being too fast with her boyfriend Herman (J.R. Cruz) - despite her claims that she hasn't had sex with him - Magdalena settles in with her aging yet industrious great-great uncle Tomas (Gonzalez), who also harbors in his back house apartment the wayward, former cholo gangster Carlos, her antagonistic cousin. When the front house is rented by a rich white gay couple, the trio of marginalized survivors gradually coalesce into a family unit, ready to defend themselves from the forces of society and economics working against them.

If a film is great and no one sees it, does it make a career? Shot almost entirely on digital video handheld cameras (and I could not tell one bit, were it not for the production notes), "Quinceanera" is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in some time. No, it does not possess the visual lyricism of a major studio production, but rarely does a major studio production possess "Quinceanera's" lyrical blend of raw honesty and complicated soul. In fact, this two-time 2006 Sundance Film Festival award winner is prima facie evidence AGAINST the inanities of the studio system, how too many cooks can spoil the stew: written in three weeks, shot in eighteen days (while STILL bserving all Hollywood child labor laws), and completed a mere five months later.

As an awestruck writer, I of course give first kudos to the writing-directing team of Glatzer and Westmoreland. Originally from the world of reality TV and documentary, this filmmaking duo creates a world at once familiar but still on the periphery of our
consciousness. While I used to think that filmmakers who raved about needing to cast "unknowns" for certain roles in certain films lapped in the pool of pretension, I applaud Glatzer and Westmoreland's (financially-driven) decision/need to hire unheralded and never-acted-before actors for this production. Armed with a script
that exposes the racist fetishization of minorities at the same time as celebrating the bumbling, stumbling, sometimes-random machinations of teenage love, the writer-directors craft impromptu, honest conversations of surprisingly casual depth. In other words, the onscreen dialogue, which captures the complexity of human
relationships of all ages, from gossipy teens to world-weary elders, sounds like real talk - imagine that.

"All the easier to act for you with, my dear." Like a Little Red Riding Hood of the barrio, Rios traipses through this movie's forest of ideas blindly, naively even of just how vulnerable she is. Her performance is effortless, grounded in a manner-free realism unblemished by preening, self-serving LA acting "teachers;" Rios is
incapable of a dishonest moment. In his brief screen time, J.R. Cruz connects convincingly with Rios as Herman, with their very sweet, very touching, very teenage relationship threatening to unravel through no fault of their own. Alongside Jesse Garcia's sharp, conflicted work as Carlos is the slow but vivacious Gonzalez as Tomas, playing a man who's forgotten more than we will ever know yet still humbles himself daily to sell homemade champurrado in order to eke out a living.

Guiding throughout and elevating the movie to dizzying, operatic heights more so than any one element can claim credit for is its inherent humanity. Watch how the dramatic second act development truly puts you in Magdalena's shoes, on her own and against the world. Marvel at how these three different but familial characters begin to band together when under duress, attack. Grit your teeth as you endure
a gutwrenching third act, when all three of our leads undergo life-altering challenges that should be accessible to teens and adults alike. The third act sniffles resonating from the screening audience were wholly earned. Is this movie a tearjerker or am I just a jerk on the verge of tears?

Even though the title is unabashedly ethnic, "Quinceanera" immerses you in Mexican culture without being extra, sanctimonious, or exotic about it - this is just the way they live, where they live. Glatzer and Westmoreland even threw me a curveball early. By showing an impetuous Carlos personifying thug life, crashing a relation's quinceanera at the outset (What's a Latino movie without a gang
element? It'd be like a black movie without a bad actor-writer-director in drag), only to redeem him from stereotype - and chastise me for prejudicially jumping the gun - with a series of emotional complications, they remind us that the common denominator is a simple one: we are all human, just packaged different. Before you
see another "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Talladega Nights," or even the upcoming "Snakes on a Plane," do yourself a favor and unwrap "Quinceanera." Like Magdalena getting a stretch Hummer, it's the best gift you could give her and yourself.

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare QUINCEANERA (R) MOVIE BIASES: None, but I've bartended at more than a few. MAJOR PLAYERS: Emily Rios, Jesse Garcia, Chalo Gonzalez (The Wild Bunch), and writer/directors Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland With a title so ethnically specific, it'll be a miracle if it makes enough money to throw one halfway decent "My Super Sweet Sixteen" party on MTV, or if ten people outside of Latino communities even go see it. Here are 1000 words on why you should anyway. In the transitional Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park, where lower class Latinos are gradually being edged out by white yuppie gentrification, Magdalena (Rios) wants nothing more than a Hummer limo for her upcoming quinceanera like her other friends had, with their poofy dresses and cheesy videos made in honor of their fifteenth birthday party/womanly rite of passage. When her preacher father Ernesto (Jesus Castanos-Chima) kicks her out of the house for being too fast with her boyfriend Herman (J.R. Cruz) - despite her claims that she hasn't had sex with him - Magdalena settles in with her aging yet industrious great-great uncle Tomas (Gonzalez), who also harbors in his back house apartment the wayward, former cholo gangster Carlos, her antagonistic cousin. When the front house is rented by a rich white gay couple, the trio of marginalized survivors gradually coalesce into a family unit, ready to defend themselves from the forces of society and economics working against them. If a film is great and no one sees it, does it make a career? Shot almost entirely on digital video handheld cameras (and I could not tell one bit, were it not for the production notes), "Quinceanera" is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in some time. No, it does not possess the visual lyricism of a major studio production, but rarely does a major studio production possess "Quinceanera's" lyrical blend of raw honesty and complicated soul. In fact, this two-time 2006 Sundance Film Festival award winner is prima facie evidence AGAINST the inanities of the studio system, how too many cooks can spoil the stew: written in three weeks, shot in eighteen days (while STILL bserving all Hollywood child labor laws), and completed a mere five months later. As an awestruck writer, I of course give first kudos to the writing-directing team of Glatzer and Westmoreland. Originally from the world of reality TV and documentary, this filmmaking duo creates a world at once familiar but still on the periphery of our consciousness. While I used to think that filmmakers who raved about needing to cast "unknowns" for certain roles in certain films lapped in the pool of pretension, I applaud Glatzer and Westmoreland's (financially-driven) decision/need to hire unheralded and never-acted-before actors for this production. Armed with a script that exposes the racist fetishization of minorities at the same time as celebrating the bumbling, stumbling, sometimes-random machinations of teenage love, the writer-directors craft impromptu, honest conversations of surprisingly casual depth. In other words, the onscreen dialogue, which captures the complexity of human relationships of all ages, from gossipy teens to world-weary elders, sounds like real talk - imagine that. "All the easier to act for you with, my dear." Like a Little Red Riding Hood of the barrio, Rios traipses through this movie's forest of ideas blindly, naively even of just how vulnerable she is. Her performance is effortless, grounded in a manner-free realism unblemished by preening, self-serving LA acting "teachers;" Rios is incapable of a dishonest moment. In his brief screen time, J.R. Cruz connects convincingly with Rios as Herman, with their very sweet, very touching, very teenage relationship threatening to unravel through no fault of their own. Alongside Jesse Garcia's sharp, conflicted work as Carlos is the slow but vivacious Gonzalez as Tomas, playing a man who's forgotten more than we will ever know yet still humbles himself daily to sell homemade champurrado in order to eke out a living. Guiding throughout and elevating the movie to dizzying, operatic heights more so than any one element can claim credit for is its inherent humanity. Watch how the dramatic second act development truly puts you in Magdalena's shoes, on her own and against the world. Marvel at how these three different but familial characters begin to band together when under duress, attack. Grit your teeth as you endure a gutwrenching third act, when all three of our leads undergo life-altering challenges that should be accessible to teens and adults alike. The third act sniffles resonating from the screening audience were wholly earned. Is this movie a tearjerker or am I just a jerk on the verge of tears? Even though the title is unabashedly ethnic, "Quinceanera" immerses you in Mexican culture without being extra, sanctimonious, or exotic about it - this is just the way they live, where they live. Glatzer and Westmoreland even threw me a curveball early. By showing an impetuous Carlos personifying thug life, crashing a relation's quinceanera at the outset (What's a Latino movie without a gang element? It'd be like a black movie without a bad actor-writer-director in drag), only to redeem him from stereotype - and chastise me for prejudicially jumping the gun - with a series of emotional complications, they remind us that the common denominator is a simple one: we are all human, just packaged different. Before you see another "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Talladega Nights," or even the upcoming "Snakes on a Plane," do yourself a favor and unwrap "Quinceanera." Like Magdalena getting a stretch Hummer, it's the best gift you could give her and yourself. @@@@ REELS (FOUR REELS) An urban legend/instant classic. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson