The narrative circulates between two adolescents. The first being Mexican teenager Lalo (E.J Bonilla) who lives a ghetto life with his la familia: mother Virginia (Yareli Arizmendi), father Ramon (Damian Alcazer), and uncle Alex (Raul Castillo). They live in Brooklyn and, as a lot of inter city families, they struggle to get by. What makes matters worse is that Lalo doesn’t have the best relationship with them: Virginia doesn’t approve of much he does and wishes he saw some things different, Ramon works long hours with little pay as a janitor in the relief effort and doesn’t see his son much, and Alex is the typical uncle that gives him crap constantly. Despite these differences, it’s clear they care about one another and really try to do their part to survive. At a birthday party for one of his friends, Jonathan (Dennis Kellum-Castro), he is introduced to his cousin Stefanie (Gleendilys Iona). Stefanie had a different life before the attack, but the event displaced her and her mother and father Diana (Gina Torres) and Dionisio (Ricardo Chavira) who are of Dominican decent. Although they have some awkward, and borderline combative exchanges, an act of kindness towards Stefanie from Lalo gets her to “warm up” to him. It is then revealed that Stefanie lost her sister in the terrorist act and that they had a much better life in Manhattan when she was alive. Slowly but surely, the two of them become close, to the point of having a relationship. The inner city struggle shines through in these two adolescents as they fight through family troubles and start to truly connect despite their parents trying to keep them away from one another because of their ethnic differences.
The story is pretty good and is definitely engaging. Perhaps its strongest point is the script. Many movies try to implement the dialogue of inner city youth and fail, but this one does it right. There is never a word, statement, phrase, or verbal exchange that feels out of place or un-realistic. The writing team on this one should be proud of the work they did. The acting isn’t quite as awesome as the script, but it’s pretty good as well. Bonilla and Iona both portray their roles effectively and are able to give off the heir of being “high school sweeties.” Stefanie’s parents Diana by Gina Torres and Dionisio by Ricardo Chavira give sweet performances as well, and you will really grow to hate the character of Dionisio the more you watch. The surprisingly great depiction was done by Dennis Kellum-Castro as Jonathan. He delivers his lines very well and is a source of subtle, but effective comic relief in some tense moments.
The presentation had its good and bad spots. A nice portion is the cinematography, which is able to capture the essence of Brooklyn without making it seem overly “gritty” or “violent.” And this film does a great job of really creating a realistic 2001 setting, from Lola repping a St. Louis Rams Marshall Faulk jersey to Jonathan having the “tightest set up on the block” with a Nintendo 64 and CRT computer monitor in his room. The overall sound and picture quality is lack luster, but as independent films go, it’s average. In the way of extras, there isn’t much to talk about because there are none. Just a theatrical trailer.
