REVIEW: Quinceanera

I finally got around to seeing the movie Quinceañera at the Regency Fairfax Theaters (corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Boulevard) Tuesday night. For someone who has lives East of downtown Los Angeles for over a decade the movie is a very involving montage of familiar and pseudo-familiar locales in Echo Park and its environs. Just as a well-made soup (like menudo) needs a delicious broth or base to begin with, these locations serve as a backdrop (or base) for the dramatic story which unfolds.

Before Quinceañera there were a number of preview trailers for coming attractions. One of those was for the sacccharine Will Smith Oscar-bait vehicle The Pursuit of Happyness. ("Why is 'happiness' spelled with a 'Y'?" I whispered to my companion. "Shhhhh, don't be such a grammarian. It's Will Smith's Erin Brockovich." Yeah" I replied, "Tyrone Brockovich!") Also shown was the trailer for the film adaptation of Christopher Paolini's best-selling novel Eragon. This was interesting to me because I have read this first book of the Inheritance trilogy (and the second book, Eldest, which is probably an even better read). They are both excellent "young adult" speculative fiction novels on par with the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials books (See Madprofessah review) and superior to the Harry Potter books. I had just seen the "Now a Major motion picture!" mass-market paperback earlier in the day while shopping and actually viewed the trailer online. It looks like the film makers are being pretty faithful to the vision of the young author (Paolini was 15 when he began writing Eragon). We'll see on December 15th. We'll have to wait until next year to see how the film version of the first His Dark Materials book (The Amber Spyglass)with Nicole Kidman.

Anywho, back to Quinceañera. The movie theater was almost empty, but it was in excellent shape, much more presentable than my favorite second-run movie house in Pasadena, the Regency Academy 6 Theaters (a block away from the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Lake Boulevard). And the price was unbeatable: $3 for every seat. I liked the movie; it is very enjoyable. It's well-written and well acted. Jesse Garcia, who I met and took a picture with at the Task Force Leadership Awards on October 8, is smoldering hot in the movie as a gay cholo member of a large extended Latino family. I didn't know much about the movie except that it was about the ceremony marking the passage to adulthood of a young Latina played by Emily Rios. The ceremony/party gives the movie its orthographically challenging name: Quinceañera. The co-directors (and life partners) Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland do an excellent job of portraying the look and communicating the mood of the Echo Park area. They are less successful at illustrating the milieu, angst and frenzy of teensocial life. There's a certain level of artifice in the teen-only scenes. This is in stark contrast to the portrayal of the gay social settings and the Latino family conversations. These seem dead on.

There are some disturbing aspects of the film. As I thought about it more, the ways in which the Latino body is sexualized and problematized stuck with me. As a gay man, the character of Carlos played by Jesse Garcia is clearly geared to me. He is introduced to the viewer with a close-up shot of his neck with a large "213" tattoo and buzzed head wearing a "wife-beater" tank top. When viewed by the two main gay white characters it leads to immediate scampering to windows and craning of necks for a better view of the "hot cholo in a tank top." The Latino gay male body is viewed as a hot new property to be explored, possessed and then bragged about at a dinner party ("Honey, tell them about Carlos." "He's hot." "Yeah, and eight inches uncut!"), similar to the way that Latino-occupied real estate in Echo Park is explored, possessed and then bragged about at a house party ("You all are so lucky to find this place. So-and-so bought their place and it doubled in value in three years.") Also, the body of the main female character is dealt with problematically, primarily around body image and the stunning (and expensive) Quinceañera dress she wants to wear. There are some other disquieting issues surrounding the female character I don't want to get into in this review, because it involves a pivotal plot point in the film.

Another disturbing part of the film to me is its lack of racial diversity; specifically the absence of Black people. There is exactly one (that I saw) sitting at a bus stop waiting for a bus. I believe this is a conscious choice by the film makers, to implicate racial stratrification with gentrification. The white gay social settings are monochromatically white (and entirely male) except for the invited "hot cholo" and one jaded plaything. The latino social settings are also ethnically uniform, although there is some diversity in the "different kinds of Latinos" portrayed.

The film has a surprisingly unsympathetic portrayal of gay and lesbian people, considering the co-directors are both openly gay. The main gay white characters in the film are portrayed as rich, comfortable, ruthless and spoiled. This is partially mitigated by lesbians, who like the gay male characters are also seen as upwardly mobile agents of gentrification, but they are at least conflicted about it, and if I interperet the last scene are ultimately sympathetic.

I would definitely recommend the film, particularly to Los Angeles residents. And I will definitely be going to the Regency Fairfax Theaters again, soon!

GRADE: A-.