It Is Time for Fiesta

I caught a Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival screening of Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s Quinceañera last night, and I found the film – which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival this year – to be quite good.

It follows the story of Magdalena (Emily Rios), the daughter of an Echo Park Mexican-American family, who falls from grace – i.e., girlfriend gets pregnant – a few months before her quinceañera (the Latino Sweet 16…but at 15).

Needless to say, this doesn’t go over very well with her religious family, especially with her father. Drama ensues, so Magdalena leaves her home to move in with her great-great uncle Tomas (Chalo González, in a turn worthy of some serious awards buzz). Now, Tio Tomas is an old misfit of a man, and seems more at ease with people that vibe like him: his new landlords are a gay couple, and already living with him is Magdalena's cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia), a tough cholo also cast out by his parents (he’s a troublemaker and so not what they would want him to be).

The Sturm und Drang of the film comes from the trio’s struggle to pull together as a family of outsiders, and makes for a rather enjoyable, albeit predictable movie to watch.

As I walked out of the movie theater, though I couldn’t help but feel that Quinceañera didn’t feel completely authentic. I don’t know what it was still, but I this thought hinges on the fact that I found the storytelling to be perhaps a little myopic – neither filmmaker is Mexican – pero nothing but respectful.

’Twas all very nice and all, but this is a story that could have been told with more cultural authority by, you know, a filmmaker of color for whom quinceañeras actually register.

My Rating ***

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.