La Mission

A couple of nights ago, a small group of my friends went to see La Mission, a movie set in the Mission district of San Francisco, starring the Mission born-and-raised Benjamin Bratt, and directed by his brother David. I wasn't quite sure what to expect going in, but it turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

Okay, full disclosure here, I’ve lived in the Mission for a while now, and I’m completely sure it’s biased me toward liking this movie -- it's exciting to see the details of my neighborhood on the big screen (even the not-so-pretty ones), particularly when it's done with the careful attention of people who love then neighborhood as much or more than I do.

But I also fell in love with the story, which felt extraordinarily honest as it addressed issues of sexuality, gender, race, and class without resorting to easy answers or neatly-tied-up happy endings. Although they were working with a limited budget and a relatively inexperienced cast (many of them Mission locals), the movie felt heart-wrenchingly real.

Just I was planning to write up this post, I happened across Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano's writeup of their experience of the movie, which I thought was particularly moving (check it out here: http://www.racialicious.com/2010/05/10/la-mission-and-latino-masculinities/). If you're in San Francisco, you should get yourself over to the theater to see it while it's here! If you're not lucky enough to have this movie playing in your city, definitely track it down when it's out on DVD. It's a beautiful movie that's worth seeing even if you've never been to San Francisco.