Institute History
Description
This is an extraordinarily striking filmic tapestry, a portrait of a world of violence and passion, love and pain, rage and death so vivid and expressive that it cannot help but move you as it drives you to despair. It explores the universe of Chicana gang girls with a tough, but sensitive eye, often with humor and sometimes with pathos, as it relates the stones of their loves, lives and families. The story itself is complex, told in three sections, often following one narrative line only to weave into another, and then pick up still a third.
The relationships and characters are not simple or caricatured, either, but complicated and contradictory. the way you could discover them in real life. Any synopsis, then. will oversimplify. This is a film about the relationship between two friends, Sad Girl and Mousie Eternal friends as children and adolescents_ bitter rivals when they both fall for the same guy, Ernesto. both of them have his child, and both mourn his death. It's a film about gangs and their rituals, their obsessions and their business. It introduces us to Ernesto's brother, as he's brought up to take his place dealing drugs, and Giggles, an older gang girl back from prison. The girls assume she is ready to lead, but instead she seeks a real job and a solid family where she can raise the four-year-old daughter whom she has practically never seen. And we meet Alicia, "Ia blue eyes: who falls head over heels in love with someone she's never met. and EI Duran. the cool womanizer In his classic car with a bevy of adoring accomplices. And of course it's the story of "Suavacito," tile minitruck with the fabulous custom paint job, and all the tragedies that ensue.
In short, La Vida Loca is a remarkably rich film, told wonderfully well With an elliptical style that perfectly blends and mixes its ingredients The dialogue and the performances, especially of the gang girls, are very strong. The outcome sends a clear-cut message, and yet is heavily ironic. This could only be the work of an enormously talented filmmaker and her collaborators, and you must not miss it.
Thursday Jan 21 9:00 pm
Prospector Square Theatre
Friday Jan 28 1:00 pm
Egyptian Theatre
Saturday Jan 29 4:30 pm
Sundance Screening Room
$10.00