Girls Attitude: Modes d'emploi

I watched this movie last night and thought it was a great movie.

The movie starts off slow and a bit quirky. At times it even feels like it is trying to hard to be something its not. Then somewhere in the middle, it drops the quirky and the story develops. I became invested and began to care for the characters.

The acting was good. Both main actresses do a great job in their roles as mother and daughter. As an educator myself, I see these types of mothers and daughters almost every school year. It was nice seeing their story be told and also one from Latin roots.

I would recommend this movie because at the end of it all, you leave the movie with some thoughts and emotions tied to the characters.

Good film.

Yes, I am aware that some members gave this film a low rating. They were wrong. No disrespect. Wrong happens.

1000 reasons why this "coming of age" vehicle should not have worked. Including the fact that it has been done before, hundreds of times, and this was yet another "Canadian" production (supported by the Canadian tax system) meant for the small screen and not really intended for an A-List rollout.

But sometimes everything comes together and you end up with an exceptional result:

* the script is superb. It is not enough that the daughter wants to accelerate her "coming of age" to rebel against her mother, she actually researches the topic and deconstructs it, creating a roadmap to maturity which of course is a roadmap to disaster. Clever! And innovative.

* the acting is to die for. Eva Mendes may give the best performance of her life here. Cierra Ramirez steals every scene not otherwise nailed down and several that are. Arquette as the sympathetic school teacher sells it bigtime and makes us all wish we had a teacher like that in school.

Really a great film, one that succeeds way beyond its aspirations. It is ironic that, for example, this reviewer took flak from members for ripping apart THE DUFF (a horrific A-List movie) but little gems like this often get lost in the shuffle.

Highly recommended.

For those who remember Cher and Winona Ryder in Mermaids and liked it, this is an updated Hispanic irresponsible mother and cry for help daughter comedy. There are some laugh out loud moments. The drama and comedy don't blend that smoothly as hoped but overall it's a cute story.

The performances are good. Eva is funny and touching. She is a great comedienne and very convincing in the more serious moments. It's nice to see her in a real latina role speaking Spanish. She is believable showing blue collar struggles - much more than Jennifer Lopez.

Strange casting of Matthew Modine as the married cad who romances Eva's character. He is usually the good guy so it's a bit strange to see him in the role.

Overall it isn't has polished as Mermaids but it's worth a watch.

Good lord, where is a Final Destination style Heath Robinson teen kill when you really need it? Generally I love meta movies in the form of "If this were an (insert genre) this would happen", in this case Bildungsroman, but this one contrived to be so utterly devoid of charm or wit that I just about wanted to slit my wrists. And the sad thing is that the ingredients available were so great - Eva Mendes + Patricia Arquette + Matthew Modine = YES PLEASE!!! The only problem was that the role given to the teen actress protagonist was absolutely unbearable. I don't mean any disrespect to the actress because she committed to the role 100% - it was the fault of the writer and director. What could have been heartwarming and cathartic (like Easy A for example) ended up being a great big nerve-grating, embarrassing snorefest. 3 out of 10 because I'm feeling generous.

Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez) is tired of her irresponsible mother Grace (Eva Mendes) especially her affair with the married Dr. Harford (Matthew Modine). Her only friend at school is Tavita (Raini Rodriguez). After a lesson from English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette), she decides to perform her version of rites of passage. She befriends bad girl Valerie (Brenna O'Brien) and dumps Tavita. Her ultimate goal is to lose her virginity to bad boy Trevor (Landon Liboiron) and run away to NYC. Grace's boss Emile (Russell Peters) is looking to cook at the Crab Fest competition but he's reluctant to leave her in charge of his restaurant.

The concept is interesting. It kind of reminds of 'The To Do List' except Ramirez is a real teen. I expected this to be a comedy but then it takes jarring turns into dark drama. The production by Mexican director Patricia Riggen is TV level with some good actors. Patricia Arquette showing up surprised me a little. I like the characters in this movie but I couldn't get a handle on its tone. It seems to be a light kid's movie at first but then it throws some very adult situations.