Mamitas (2012)

the audience applauded

Good movie but grossly overrated

Boring

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

History teacher and guidance counselor Miss Ruiz speaks to a high school gym class made up mostly of Latino kids. She's hoping some of them will listen because few Latino kids in the Los Angeles schools go on to college, their best bet at improving their status in life.In history class, Jordin makes it clear he's not interested in what Miss Ruiz has to say, and he uses a word that I'm not sure was even allowed when the version I saw was being cleaned up for TV (though this word is often used on broadcast TV). Miss Ruiz kicks him out of class.Felipa, a nerdy but somewhat attractive girl from New York City who moved in with her beautiful cousin Kika and her parents when her mom couldn't handle the responsibility of a child or anything else, is interested in a scholarship. Jordin sees her when he is waiting to be chastised by the school principal, but he doesn't think too much about her. Or does he?Jordin lost his mother when he was too young to know her. In fact, the truth is that giving birth to Jordin was very risky and some wrong decisions were made. His father, who sells cars along with Jordin's dropout brother, expects Jordin not to send up like his brother, and he is very demanding and borderline abusive. Yet we do see he really cares for his sons.Jordin has a reputation. He acts very macho in front of his friends and wants to impress them by flirting with as many hot girls as possible, including Kika. And eventually getting some of them in bed with him.And yet when Kika and Felipa are together, somehow Jordin wants to hang out with Felipa. Just as a friend. I'm not entirely clear on what happened, but it might have been a bet that he could resist the hot girl and go for the ugly one instead.But Jordin really does seem to fall for Felipa. He just won't admit it to anyone else. And he goes after Kika to show he's still got it. Kika, who is somewhat shallow and not particularly brainy, is actually jealous of her cousin, when one would expect things to be the other way around.Meanwhile, Jordin makes the discovery that his biological father is a college professor. In the process of going to find out more about the man and about the mother he never knew, he just might be inspired to go to college.So will things turn out well for Jordin? What about his romance with Felipa?This is a very good movie. Although there are some stereotypical images, this movie does make an attempt to show positive images of Latinos as well. Veronica Diaz-Carranza and E.J. Bonilla both do very good jobs, and so do many of the leading actors.Jennifer Esposito, in addition to being hot for her age, gives a strong performance. She's tough. She can handle whatever Jordin throws at her, and still care about him enough to help him in life.This is a worthy effort.

The potential spoiler is at the very end and it is impossible to accidentally read. This movie was a pleasant surprise. I saw the trailer for it a while ago and it stuck with me, so I did some research about it and learned it is the extension of a short film by the writer and director. Of course I found the short film and I liked it. The acting and production value were good but not great in the short, but the story was sound, so I was looking forward to the longer version.Sometimes when shorts are extended to feature length films they add extraneous plot lines and end up undermining what was great about the original, but this film doesn't suffer from that. It was well written.This is the kind of movie I crave to see in America, but I rarely get to see because people from communities like Jordin's are rarely portrayed as three dimensional, and their stories are usually extensions of the negative images you can already see in the news. However, their lives are bigger than that, and their lives are no different than the lives portrayed in main stream media. They just unfold differently. So, Mamitas presents a beautiful and realistic version of the boy meets girl story.Sure it is not a completely original, but it feels refreshing because it is the kind of story that is rarely executed well. The rhythm of this movie felt right. Just about everything unfolded naturally. With the screenplay as tight as this one was, hitting all the narrative marks, the other necessary element to its success was its actors. All of them were excellent especially the leads. The way they moved, spoke and interacted felt real. That is what I loved the most about the movie. The parts felt lived in, nothing was overdone for the sake of drama.There is probably one moment in the movie I didn't love because I think it is an unnecessary development used too much in the movies. Beyond that I didn't have a problem with anything in the movie. It was excellent and it has definitely made its way on to my list of all time favorite movies.After writing this review I am going to do some research on these actors to see what else they have been in, but the movie business being what it is I don't anticipate their resumes will be long. However, they are very talented and I hope they have many opportunities. I will be watching out for them especially the actor that portrays Jordin.******* Spoiler below (This is not really a spoiler, but I will put it aside in case it might affect how someone experiences the movie for the first time. It is regarding the part of the film that I had a little problem with.) There is a moment in the movie when the two characters kiss which to me felt disingenuous to the characters and story especially since it followed the discovery of some potentially damaging information. Although not dramatic, it reminds me of when characters just spontaneously start having sex literally moments after they escape death or some equally life altering event. I understand how sex or intimacy can follow tragic and life altering events, but I think they are rarely ever aligned well in movies. In this movie it is no different. It didn't ruin the movie for me, but the movie would have been perfect without it. Minor qualm.

(English is not my native tongue, so please excuse the mistakes in the grammar or spelling).To get it from the start, it is a low budget movie. So what. It portrays mainly the coming together of two teens somewhere in California. It shows everyday people, with its hardships and inner figths when they learn about themselves.No thoroughly taught out complicated plot. No action sequences. No dramatic musical pushing. No ahh moments.Just plain life. Its hard to bare for a lot of us out there. Just my guess that explains the bad rating of this movie.I could finish this with some wise-as(s) reference to the Tao Te Ching - but i wont. It wouldn't do this movie justice (n tao te ching for sure not :) ) - I liked it a lot. A good movie based on "simple" everyday lives of a few on this planet. Fictionally of course. Such movies are only worth the watch if you are able to not suppress your emotions and be able to overcome the overdose of media information (or distraction) and come back to where we actually belong. The plain naked self. (n this is somehow a plain naked movie :) ) enjoy it

I thought Mamitas was a really well acted and naturalistic film. I found myself being able to relate to all of the characters, and felt like I knew them personally even though I grew up in a much different environment. It was like someone just dropped a camera into the middle of their everyday lives in LA including the drama, romance, and pressures of being in high school and made a movie out of it.Mamitas is truly a coming of age story that features wonderful dialogue and two honest, realistic performances from its young cast. The story is nothing particularly new, but the movie is honest and real. Very entertaining movie that does a great job making a possibly cliché story-line unique and original in its own way.