Luminarias

I can relate to this Movie. Some strong points are brought up in this film revolving around the stereotypical thinking of Anglos. It's great to see that alot of latinos were used here not just as actors but as producers, writers, and crew! WAKE UP HOLLYWOOD!!!!!! We need more lead Brown actors on the BIG SCREEN. IT's their time now. LAtinos make up for almost 50% of the profits in Hollywood's pockets. Make movies that they can relate to like this one. VIVA LOS LATINOS AMERICANOS!

Though some of the acting was a little stiff, the situations and dialogue were genuine and a pleasure to experience. Not only are the situations relatable, the characters are people that you know. Scott Bakula, always fantastic, is a treasure in this picture. The music is varied and wonderful. I rarely purchase movies for my permanent collection, but this is one I will be adding. The story holds up. The writing is outstanding. DVD extras round out the fun. As for a previous comment regarding how the characters speak depending upon who they are with - who doesn't do that? When we speak with our elders and our employers, a certain level of respect and sentence structure is required. When we talk with our friends, casually in a group over a beer, the language needn't be so structured.

It was funny and I enjoyed it. I have sat at tables with a group of Latinas and heard similar comments. This movie was about a group of friends whose commonality was their ethnicity. The ladies were letting loose and having fun. And as an audience participant, I was having fun watching them.

I had to disagree with the other reviewer. Just because a woman is a "professional" doesn't mean that she has to use the lingo of her trade all the time. And have heard "professionals" who, away from the job, revert back to their comfort speech. That is what these ladies were doing.

In US there is a large variety of Mexicans, particularly in California. There you find Mexican legal and illegal emigrants, and US citizens of Mexican origin called Chicanos by the Americans or Pochos by the same Mexicans. Chicanos normally speak well Spanish, at least 80% of them, and behave as Mexicans in their way of lives. This film shows the behavior of four Chicano ladies, their dreams, their wishes, always trying to live well as Americans but also dreaming to have a hot lover or husband able to dance and to enjoy as they do. I found this film interesting because many of Latinos are like these ladies and they want to live well but eating tacos and tortillas, drinking tequila and having hot sex with their lovers or husbands, no matter if they are not US citizens. May be the film could have done better technically, but its message was clear to me, but may not be the same for non Latino population.

Whew! I was looking forward to seeing this film for its (I thought) wonderfully diverse content; there are far too few films with such subject matter and cast, but YIKES!

SO poorly written, SO poorly acted!! It made me so disappointed that the writer tried to fit every stereotype she could into her dialogue, scenes that were forced to fit in all the cliches, forced to fit in contrived "confrontations" and GOD-AWFUL ACTING!!! I don't know what happened to some of these actresses, I've seen many of them in other roles, and they've been very good, but it seems as though they all sank to the level of the film.

It's too bad that this will be held up as an example of Latina filmmaking, it will probably make other producers shy away from tackling content like this in the future.