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From the
boys who gave you The Fluffer (2001), that
exposé of the gay porn industry (as well as
a primary proponent for putting that coinage
into general usage), comes Quinceanera, a
coming-of-age tale about Magdalena, a
fourteen-year-old Mexican almost-virgin, and
her comely gay cousin, Carlos.
Written and directed by life and business
partners, Wash Westmoreland and Richard
Glatzer, Quinceanera might be expected to
deliver politically correct gay characters,
but if there are villains in this
bittersweet tale, most audience members
might argue it’s the upscale gay couple who
own the house in which Magdalena and Carlos
find themselves living with their
great-uncle. As the gentrifying landlords,
the two gay men come closest to caricature
and cliché with their perfect color schemes
and innate design sense, and when their
seduction scene with Carlos commences, you
can almost hear Gene Shalit tearing off his
hairpiece as he screams, “Predators!
Predators!”
With its appealing characters and its strong
belief in family, regardless of how the word
is defined, Quinceanera evokes another film
from another summer, Raising Victor Vargas –
and what both films share is a belief in the
wisdom of our elders, those who have lived
long enough to know that it’s love that
matters most, wherever it’s found.
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