Common Sense Note
Parents should know that the film features discussions of sexual activity, specifically "heavy petting" and the movement of sperm, as a means to explain Magdalena's extremely rare route to pregnancy. A gay couple seduces a young man. Family members argue (especially fathers with children). Family members fight physically. A young man keys someone else's car. Characters use some language, drink, and smoke cigarettes.
Families can discuss the relationships between parents and children. How do Magdalena and Carlos' fathers react to their children's unexpected situations, and how could they have responded differently? They can also talk about gentrification; is it a positive or negative trend?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
The winner of the Audience and Grand Jury prizes at Sundance, QUINCEANERA follows a couple of coming of age tales. Living in Echo Park, Los Angeles, Cousins Magdalena (Emily Rios) and Carlos (Jesse Garcia) both find themselves kicked out of their homes for very different reasons. Taken in by their great-great uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), they learn from him and support one another even when they feel rejected by their own fathers.
The film begins at a party, a quinceanera, the traditional celebration for a girl's transition to adulthood. Magdalena's cousin and Carlos' sister Eileen (Alicia Sixtos) looks beautiful in her white dress, but when Carlos tries to give her a rose, his father Walter (Johnny Chavez) insists that he's not welcome "around the family." Carlos' conservative father cannot accept the fact that his son is gay, though the young man is remarkably at ease with his identity, and tries to maintain contact with his relatives.
Carlos is already living with his uncle when Magdalena arrives. She's been sent away by her father, Pastor Ernesto (Jesus Castanos-Chima), after he learns that she's pregnant at age 14 (she's actually looking forward to her own quinceanera, just weeks after Eileen's). Though Magdalena tells her father she has never had intercourse with her straight-A student boyfriend, the adults don't believe her. At first the scene at Tomas' is tense: Carlos and Magdalena argue and the space is tight. But the never-married, big-hearted Tomas provides an ideal model of familial love, embracing all his children.
Soon Magdalena and Carlos are supporting each other, too: He helps her to research her condition on the Internet and find a doctor; and she helps him when he goes through a rocky relationship with two upwardly mobile gay men who essentially use him for sex, then talk about him with their friends as if he's a "prize" (though one of the men looks plainly uncomfortable about this).
The movie is about property as well as propriety. For one thing, the neighborhood is in the process of "gentrification": as poor Hispanic residents are pushed out by younger, wealthier white buyers, generational expectations change. Carlos surfs the Net; Magdalena and friends want to purchase U.S. mass-marketed merchandise (clothing and food). Both angry fathers represent a losing effort to maintain "the old ways." Their inflexibility is contrasted with Tomas' openness to change, his generosity, and unconditional love.
Families who like this movie might also like other coming of age stories like Real Women Have Curves, Mi Vida Loca, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentMagdalena is pregnant at 14, but has not had intercourse (the film provides a medical explanation for the phenomenon, using terms that include "vagina" and "sperm"). Brief mention of "gay porn sites," references to gay sex (some petting on screen, and a couple lying in bed), and a major plot point concerning a young man's sexual identity; kissing and some caressing between couples (straight and gay). |
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ViolenceA young man is forcefully removed from a party (brief punching and pushing). |
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LanguageSome use of the f-word, other obscenities. |
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Social BehaviorYoung people learn to cope with adults' dedication to tradition. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoCharacters drink wine and liquor at parties and smoke cigarettes. |
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