Desi's Looking for a New Girl
| Desi's Looking for a New Girl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Mary Guzmán |
| Screenplay by | Mary Guzmán |
| Produced by | Fontana Butterfield Mary Guzmán |
| Starring | Desi del Valle Yesenia Aguirre Sandra Carola |
| Cinematography | Sophie Constantinou |
| Edited by | Lidia Szajko |
Production company | Mary Guzmán Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Languages | Spanish, English |
Desi's Looking for a New Girl is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Mary Guzmán.
Synopsis
[edit]Desi (Desi del Valle) is a young Latina artist living in San Francisco, and is involved in the Latina lesbian scene there. She becomes depressed when her girlfriend leaves her. Efforts by her friends to set her up with various women fail, as each blind date is more comical than the last, and Desi finds each to be "Ms. Wrong". The story is told by one of Desi's friends, skateboarder JT (Yesenia Aguirre), who in her own storyline dreams of meeting comic Marga Gomez, her idol.
Cast
[edit]- Desi del Valle as Desi
- Yesenia Aguirre as JT
- Marga Gomez as herself
- Sandra Carola
- Rosa Medina
- Michelle T. Cordero
- Richard A. Bracho
- Alisa Rodriguez
- Janelle Jacoo
- Colman Domingo as Mother
Release
[edit]Desi's Looking for a New Girl premiered at the 2000 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Reception
[edit]Variety critic Dennis Harvey panned the film. He wrote that while the milieu of the film – the Latina lesbian culture of San Francisco's Mission District – is potentially interesting, the film itself is "uneventful and padded even at 68 slim minutes" and that it fails "to develop any narrative or characters to draw us in."[1] The review in the Chicago Reader was equally harsh, calling the film a "long-winded [and] technically clumsy comedy." Reviewer Ted Shen also viewed the film as a missed opportunity for a worthwhile glimpse into the Latina lesbian dating scene.[2]
The Curves magazine review, on the other hand, calls the film "a fun and uniquely told story of life after a long-term relationship ends." Reviewer Lauren Shiro called the love and support between the characters "palpable" and "very endearing", and opined that the storytelling sweeps the viewer in, making "you feel very much like a part of the story."[3]
The film has been cited in several books and academic papers on Latina and lesbian Latina cultural representation.[4][5]
Awards
[edit]- 2000 L.A. Outfest - Mary Guzmán won the Outstanding Emerging Talent award (tied with Patrik-Ian Polk for Punks (2000))
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Harvey, Dennis (17 July 2000). "Desi's Looking For A New Girl". Variety. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
- ^ Shen, Ted (26 October 1985). "Desi's Looking for a New Girl". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
- ^ Shiro, Lauren. "Kamikaze Hearts and Desi's Looking for a New Girl". www.curvemag.com. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
- ^ Fitch, Melissa A. (2009-06-25). Side Dishes: Latina American Women, Sex, and Cultural Production. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813548531.
- ^ Conference, REFORMA (Association) National (2001). The Power of Language: Selected Papers from the Second REFORMA National Conference. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563089459.
