.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO Foreign Accents Growing up Hispanic in Los Angeles BY JASON BLAIR QUINCEAÑERA: Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Cinematography, Eric Steelberg. Music, Victor Bock, Michael B. Jeter, J. Peter Robinson and Micko Westmoreland. Starring Chalo González, Jesse Garcia, Emily Rios and J.R. Cruz. Sony Pictures Classics, 2006. R. 90 minutes. Carlos (Jesse Garcia) and Magdalena (Emily Rios) in Quinceañera. Echo Park in Los Angeles is a neighborhood in transition. From the refurbished Victorians of Angelino Heights to the views of downtown from Echo Park Lake, this traditionally Hispanic and artist-friendly enclave offers a little something for everyone. It's not surprising, then, that this eclectic community worries about losing its traditional character to gentrification. Good fences might make good neighbors, as Robert Frost said, but sometimes good fences make it hard to see each other. The new film Quinceañera, though set in Echo Park, doesn't attempt to solve the city's problems. Instead, Quinceañera is an intimate, character-driven family drama that at times has the authentic feel of a documentary. It's hard to say what's more remarkable about Quinceañera: how it manages to avoid the fajitas-and-family clichés that sometimes reduce today's portraits of Hispanic culture or how it manages to feel both tough and tender using primarily actors who've never been in movies. Quinceañera is about two cousins, Carlos (Jesse Garcia) and Magdalena (Emily Rios), and the benevolent great-uncle they live with, Tomás (Chalo González). Carlos and Magdalena are the family outcasts, although their transgressions aren't what they appear to be. Quinceañera is always more than it seems: There's a thug who's not a thug, a great-uncle who's young at heart and a pregnant girl who's still a virgin. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, Quinceañera is a focused and intimate portrait of a family-within-a-family, and the lessons these lovable outcasts must learn in order to grow and survive. With Tomás, Carlos and Magdalena find safety, at least for a few short months. The scenes between the cousins are warm and generous, with a comic timing that only family members can develop. They're teens, so the insults come easily and often, but they recognize that in order to endure their banishment, they need to stick together. The idyll can't last forever, of course. Magdalena's quinceañera — the formal celebration of her 15th birthday, marking her entry into adulthood — won't take place unless she can reconcile with her father, a stern man who wants nothing to do with her. But before that can happen, Carlos brings trouble into Tomás' household, changing the three of them and their families forever. Ironically, through the film's focus on only three members of an otherwise large Hispanic family, I felt I learned more about extended Hispanic families than I would have if a much larger cast had been used. And despite the modern elements in the film — text messaging, hip-hop and a Hummer limousine — there's more tradition on display in Quinceañera than any documentary could ever provide. A delightful film about love, trust and forgiveness, Quinceañera gets it right by not trying to do too much.
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