This a cute latino coming-of-age story. Set in L.A.’s predominately immigrant Huntington Park area it tells of two Mexican teenage girls who become neighbors. One of them Yolanda, who’s nickname is Mosquita, is a good girl who lives in a nice home with hard-working pushy parents who are proud of their daughter who gets straight A’s at school and who is on track for college. Mari, the other girl is a toughie living with a younger sister who she looks out for, and her mum, and as the family are undocumented aliens work is hard to come by and they are so broke that they always on the edge of being evicted. On Mari’s first day at High School she is assigned to be Yolanda’s study mate, and at first they do not hit it off at all as they appear to be complete opposites. But then a friendship blossoms and later to the confusion of both girls it is on the cusp of developing into something much deeper than that.
After seeing the very disappointing ‘FILLY BROWN’ the other day, it’s refreshing to see this very sensitive treatment of these young girls dealing with their burgeoning sexuality without having to resort to all the usual cliches and stereotypes that litter movies based in Latino communities .
(Reprinted from my Sundance 2012 Blog as the movie now has a theatrical release.)
★★★★★★★
Labels: coming of age, gay, Sundance
