Echo Park LA (Quincea&ntilde;era) (15) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->
This slight but charming indie movie centres upon the literal coming-of-age - the "Quinceañera" - of Magdalena (Emily Rios), the teenage daughter of a devoutly Catholic Latino family in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Pregnant by her flaky boyfriend, she is thrown out by her stern paterfamilias and goes to live with her great-uncle Tomas (Chalo González), who has already taken in her firebrand cousin, Carlos (Jesse Garcia). The relationship between this unlikely trio drives along an essentially sweet-natured drama, which also manages to comment on class, race and sexuality - ambitious themes, quietly and unassumingly handled by the writer-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.
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