Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [82]
112. QUINCEAÑERA
(2005)
Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Screenplay by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Actors:
EMILY RIOS
JESSE GARCIA
CHALO GONZÁLEZ
J. R. CRUZ
ARACELI GUZMÁN-RICO
JESUS CASTAÑOS-CHIMA
DAVID W. ROSS
JASON L. WOOD
As a working critic I get invited to many more films than I have time to see. Every publicist tries to write a persuasive press release, so I’ve learned to trust my instincts when reading about a film that hasn’t yet been reviewed to decide if it’s worth my time. Something about the description of a small-scale film called Quinceañera piqued my interest and, in fact, the picture actually exceeded my expectations.
An intimate story is set against the backdrop of Echo Park, an older area of Los Angeles that became a Latino enclave years ago when Anglos moved out to the suburbs. Now Echo Park is undergoing another transition as upwardly mobile couples—many of them gay—are discovering the still-affordable neighborhood and renovating its vintage houses.
Newcomer Emily Rios plays Magdalena, whose family is eagerly preparing for her traditional fifteenth birthday party celebration—her quinceañera. But an unexpected piece of news interrupts their plans: it seems she’s pregnant. She swears she hasn’t had sex, but her stern and stubborn father, a storefront preacher, won’t believe her, so she moves in with her kindly great-grand-uncle Tio (Chalo González), who’s also taken in her black-sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Carlos is experiencing a different kind of awakening with a gay man who’s just moved into the neighborhood.
The film deals with many forms of culture clashes—and coming together—in an ever-changing world. Its creators, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, were inspired to make Quinceañera by what they experienced in real life as newcomers to Echo Park. They prevailed upon their friends and neighbors to help out with advice, use of locations, and recommendations of people to fill the various roles in their script. Because they were making a nonunion movie, they had to find individuals who had talent but didn’t belong to the Screen Actors Guild. Luck was on their side, not only with the young leads but with the film’s oldest performer, Chalo González, who has charm and charisma to spare as the kindly Uncle Tio.
The movie has an unmistakable air of honesty about it that’s positively disarming. It offered me one of my most enjoyable and enlightening moviegoing experiences in 2006.
The little-movie-that-could also garnered a formidable array of honors. It won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award—an impressive one-two punch—at the Sundance Film Festival. Its writer-directors and producer Anne Clements won the John Cassavetes Award for low-budget filmmaking at the Independent Spirit Awards. It also won GLAAD and Humanitas Awards, reflecting the broad societal swath it covers so effectively.
113. RAISING VICTOR VARGAS
(2003)
Directed by Peter Sollett
Screenplay by Peter Sollett From the short film Five Feet High and Rising by Peter Sollett
Original short story by Peter Sollett and Eva Vives
Actors:
VICTOR RASUK
JUDY MARTE
DONNA MALDONADO
WILFREE VASQUEZ
ALTAGRACIA GUZMAN
MELONIE DIAZ
SILVESTRE RASUK
At one time, New York’s Lower East Side was a Jewish ghetto, a simmering part of the city’s melting pot and the source of many stories, plays, and movies. But times change. The neighborhood is still home to an immigrant community, as we learn in Raising Victor Vargas, but these people come from the Dominican Republic.
Raising Victor Vargas won rave reviews in 2002 because it’s not like any other movie in recent memory: an unusual story with colorful characters and performances that resonate because they seem so genuine. That’s because writer and director Peter Sollett worked with his cast of mostly nonprofessionals to achieve that special quality.
Victor (Victor Rasuk) is a self-styled Don Juan in his neighborhood, but in truth he’s just a cocky kid who’s being raised—along with a brother