Mi vida loca

"Mi Vida Loca" is a documentary-like approach to examining the lives of Hispanic girls in Echo Park. The film is never over-dramatized. The dialogue is authentic, and never stylized, and so are the performances. The story never takes the predictable Hollywood route. However, it still could've used more structure. At first I thought the film's focus was on the character of Sad Girl. About 15-20 minutes through, the focus changes to another character and the same pattern occurs throughout the film. So I didn't feel as connected to the film as I expected. If the characters and situations were unrealistic, I would be totally disengaged, but that wasn't the case and as a result, I was still entertained and moved. Almost all the scenes take place in apartments, sidewalks and parks, so it's obvious that the film was made on a low-budget, but that small budget was put to good use and I give Allison Anders much credit.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

It is so much like the world I grew up in during my high school years that there isn't a character in the movie I can't identify with. Everytime I watch it, it's like I'm watching a home video of me and my old friends....

I'm a big fan of cheap movies, and again I'm shown an excellent example here of intelligent shoe-string filmmaking.

The story revolves around the hispanic girl gang of Echo Park, while there is no story as such, the floating viewpoint takes in the mindsets of all the characters and gives a kind of overview of what it's like to live your life to the strict rules of gang culture.

Some of the women look very hard indeed, and I found out later a few are actual gang members. Very impressive. Watch out for cameos by a young Spike Jonze and Jason Lee. That's a footnote though, the film is enjoyable, the medium pace never stretches your patience and the performances are very good.

Themes of retribution, faith, friendship and loyalty are the main talking points, but I'd recommend this film to anyone with a slight interest in gang culture and in this case, female gangs.

My name is Jacquelin. I'm 17 years old, and currently attending Arts of living. Which's an alternative school for pregnant women and new moms. I have a 5 month old baby boy name Tali. I'm ambitious, determined and out going.

The movie Mi Vida Loca is about a girl-gang in Echo Park, and basically it shows you the reality of gangs now a days. It shows you what these young teens face. From being a teen mom, a drug dealer etc..

I really enjoyed this movie a lot. I can actually relate to this movie because I'm a teen mom. I use to hang with gang- bangers, but having a baby can really change someone. I recommend this movie to every teen that's in a gang or hangs out with gang-bangers. So they can see how dumb they look for one, and for two so they can realize what they're risking. This movie has a great lesson behind it. Which's be careful what you do because What goes around comes around.

This is a very interesting film about the girls who hang out with the gangbangers in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The focus shifts from one character to another, but the story is pretty much always told from the viewpoint of the girls.

This movie is bittersweet to me because it documents much of the tragedy surrounding the senseless killings on the street but it also offers a vision of hope. The characters in the film are shown as real human beings - the director used a mix of actors and real people from the neighborhood. It's sad to see how innocent many of them are yet how easily the violence comes.

Don't think this is just all shootings and beatings. It's mostly about the neighborhood and the people in it, and that's where the sweet in bittersweet comes from. Even amid all the tragedy, men and women hook up with each other, babies are born, life goes on. It's not the melodrama of "West Side Story", it's more a poignant look at life in the Echo.

Production values lag at times but this is still a very fine movie and one of my favorites.