[ThisWeek] Quinceanera at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[This Week at the Kenworthy]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre-

Quinceañera (R)
Thursday & Friday, October 19 & 20
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, October 21 & 22
4:45 & 7:00 PM
$5/adult
KFS pass good for Sunday movies
(Review below)

October is Scary Movie Month
Late Night Scary Movie
Psycho (the original)
Saturday, October 21
10:00 PM
$3/includes popcorn

Late night.  Dark theater.  Big screen. Free popcorn.
And a crowd of friends of the verge of screaming.

Check out our web-site for more information, ratings, and reviews.  This is
your chance to see some of your favorite flicks on the BIG screen.
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy-

Something Serious (not rated)
A film by Nate Dail
Tuesday, October 24
8:00 PM
$5/general admission

Plot Summary
Chris (played by Peter Beard), a depressed and lonely teenage boy, moves to
Moscow with his mother (played by Pam Palmer) from California. He is
introduced to the life of the small town through a kind, flirtatious female
classmate, (played by Leah Meredith Payton).  The story is broken into three
acts, depicting the beginning, peak, and collapse of their relationship. The
plot centers on Chris, who has built his entire foundation of happiness upon
Leah, and his growing dependence on her as the relationship progresses and
how he copes with the final breakup.

Kyle Miller helped edit and film Something Serious.

A Scanner Darkly (R)
Thursday & Friday, October 26 & 27
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, October 28 & 29
4:35 & 7:00 PM

Poltergeist
Saturday, October 28
10:00 PM
$3/includes popcorn
* * *

Coming in November: Half Nelson; Factotum; This Film is Not Yet Rated;
Sirius Idaho Theatre presents a staged reading of The Oldest Profession by
Paula Vogel

Regular movie prices:  $5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger
KFS series pass prices:  $30/10 films, $75/30 films.  KFS pass good only for
Sunday movies.

For more information on movies, events, rental rates, and/or to download a
schedule, 
visit our website at www.kenworthy.org or call 208-882-4127.
* * *

This week¹s Review-

Quinceañera

Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has
sexual situations and some strong language.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

As reviewed by James Greenberg writing for the Hollywood Reporter

For many people living in Los Angeles, the Latino culture of Echo Park is so
foreign to them that it may as well be another planet. Two white male
directors, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, were so taken with the
neighborhood where they live that they wanted to change that. The result is
" Quinceañera," a loving look at the rituals surrounding a girl's fifteenth
birthday. Life-affirming without being saccharine and enormously
entertaining, film could be one of those rare specialty pictures that
crossover to a mainstream audience.

Film is book-ended by two celebrations symbolizing a young girl's arrival at
womanhood, and a lot happens in between. The first Quinceañera is for Eileen
(Alicia Sixtos), a well-off, popular and pretty Mexican-American girl. It's
a joyous occasion, similar to a coming out party or a sweet 16, but with
religious as well as secular meaning. Food, dance and family are the main
ingredients and things are going splendidly until the arrival of Eileen's
black-sheep brother Carlos (Jesse Garcia).

"Quinceañera " is indeed a neighborhood affair. Many of the actors are local
non-professionals who just happen to have a great presence on camera. Rios,
making her feature debut, has a wonderful naturalness, and Garcia, who has
appeared in a number of national commercials and TV shows, brings a
smoldering intensity to his role.

Shot with a HD camera, mostly hand-held, by Eric Steelberg, film has a
remarkable vibrancy, as does the infectious traditional and contemporary
music supplied by Micko Westmoreland and Victor Bock. "Quinceañera " proves
once again that filmmakers can make movies about anything--even things
outside their realm of experience--if they do it with respect.


As reviewed by Stephen Holden writing for the Ney York Times

³Quinceañera,² a portrait of a Mexican-American family in Los Angeles, is as
smart and warmhearted an exploration of an upwardly mobile immigrant culture
as American independent cinema has produced. Set in Echo Park, a
working-class Latino neighborhood in the early throes of gentrification, it
has a wonderfully organic feel for the fluid interaction of cultures and
generations in the Southern California melting pot.

Without pinning smile buttons onto its characters, the film, a prize winner
at this year¹s Sundance festival, takes a benign look at the conflicts and
crises of three generations of a resilient family whose principal
breadwinner, Ernesto (Jesus Castanos-Chima), operates a storefront church.
Illegal immigration is not an issue here, and the film optimistically
assumes that newcomers to the country carry with them a surge of vitality.

The central character, Magdalena (Emily Rios), Ernesto¹s ebullient
14-year-old daughter, is anticipating her Quinceañera, the traditional
ceremony that celebrates a girl¹s official passage into womanhood at 15. The
movie opens with this jubilant rite of passage for her cousin Eileen (Alicia
Sixtos), who is decked out like a princess. Magdalena has unrealistically
high expectations for her own Quinceañera. To her parents¹ chagrin, she
dreams of being transported to the event with her entourage in a Hummer
limousine. In reality, Magdalena will have to wear a hand-me-down: her
cousin¹s dress, refitted.

Magdalena¹s future is thrown into disarray when she suddenly finds herself
pregnant by her puppyish boyfriend, Herman (J. R. Cruz), and her father
throws her out of the house in a rage. (Her pregnancy comes as a complete
surprise because it is a rare instance of a girl¹s conceiving while
remaining technically intact during intense petting.) But when Magdalena
insists that she is still a virgin, her father refuses to believe her.
Herman¹s mother, fiercely ambitious for her college-bound son, won¹t listen
to her story and keeps him out of her reach.

Magdalena goes to live with her great-uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), who
rents the back house on the property of Gary (David W. Ross) and James
(Jason L. Wood), a gay white yuppie couple on the forefront of the
neighborhood¹s imminent real estate boom. Eileen¹s brother Carlos (Jesse
Garcia) is already staying with Tomas, having been ousted from home by his
father, who caught him cruising a gay Web site.

The film¹s most pointed scenes deal with Carlos¹s work problems at a car
wash and his emerging sexuality when he becomes the plaything of Tomas¹s
landlords. Gary and James are a typical upscale gay couple with a semi-open
relationship whose rules allow them to seduce Carlos together but forbid
their seeing him individually. To them, Carlos with his tattoos and slightly
thuggish aura is a sexy trophy to show off to their friends.

When Gary, who works in television but is temporarily unemployed, breaks the
rules to have afternoon trysts with Carlos, things get messy, and Carlos
foolishly begins entertaining fantasies of working in television himself.

The exiled children and their caretaker face a final blow when Gary and
James sell their cramped little rental, and they have to find new quarters.

To its credit, ³Quinceañera² doesn¹t offer any magic solutions. But it
believes in its characters enough to leave you feeling that they will not
only survive but also flourish.


As reviewed by Ruthe Stein writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

"Quinceañera'' beguilingly begins with an elaborate celebration. From the
money lavished on it, it could be a wedding -- except that a single figurine
sits atop a tiered cake where a bride and groom would be. The ceremony, from
which this warmly appealing film takes its title, marks a Latina's 15th
birthday when she ostensibly becomes a woman.

This particular quinceañera is in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park.
Watching with barely concealed envy is 14-year-old Magdalena (Emily Rios).
With her turn to be queen for a day approaching, she worries that her
parents never will be able to afford the big blowout her cousin is
luxuriating in, including a Hummer limo for a chariot.

Just when you think, oh, here's a Cinderella story about a poor relation who
miraculously outdoes her rich ones, it veers off in a completely different
direction -- actually numerous directions, all of which will entice you to
follow. One of the pleasures of "Quinceañera,'' which won the audience and
jury prizes at Sundance, is its big reach for such a seemingly little film.
Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland collaborated on a nuanced script,
which they directed with obvious love. It shows the transformation of Echo
Park, an area undergoing gentrification, along with the seismic changes
affecting a multigenerational Mexican American family.

To begin with, Magdalena discovers she's pregnant when her cousin's pink
strapless quinceañera gown, being altered for her, has to be let out at each
successive fitting. Rios effectively portrays the teen's shock at the news.
Although she and her boyfriend are hot and heavy, Magdalena swears her
virginity is intact.

Even her adoring mother -- the closeness of Mexican American families is
encapsulated in their loving relationship -- can't quite buy her story. As a
preacher at a neighborhood storefront church, Magdalena's father is
mortified and refuses to talk to her.

She takes refuge with her great-great uncle Tomas (veteran character actor
Chalo González, who got his start in "The Wild Bunch''), who also has taken
in another of Magdalena's cousins, Carlos (Jesse Garcia). His rebellious
attitude stems from realizing he's gay and knowing that his traditional
family disapprove of his sexual preference. Carlos becomes involved in a
three-way sexual relationship with the new owners of the building where his
uncle lives. This is one subplot that seems to have been tacked on, and
"Quinceañera" could have done without it.

González's hypnotic performance radiates the wisdom some people acquire with
age. Tomas, who was the 15th of 22 children born in a village in Mexico, is
content with his simple life selling champurrado (a thick chocolate brew) on
the streets of Echo Park and then retiring to his cottage filled with a
lifetime of memories.

The neighborhood becomes a character in the movie. Lenses pick up freshly
gentrified houses nestled next to their worn neighbors. The area has gained
something, but is losing its identity in the process.

Glatzer and Westmoreland live in Echo Park, and they have given their film a
remarkable sense of place. It's refreshing at a time when you have to sit
through the entire credits to tell if a movie was actually shot where it's
supposedly set.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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