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Summary: grrrls and cinema review
Review: Real Women Have Curves describes the interrelation of race and gender in modern society as well as its cultural influence on motherhood. The film depicts a young Latina whose mother is projecting her image on the girl in an attempt to mold her daughter according to her standard. By refusing to conform to the external pressures of her society the girl breaks out of the boundaries set for her by her class, race and gender and pursues her personal goals.
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Summary: for my women in cinema class
Review: Throughout the movie "Real Women Have Curves", Anna's mother, Carmen, attempts to to project her ideal image of what a post adolescent Latin American woman should be. Their relationship is shown throughout the film by use of technical emphasis on cinematic gaze focused on mirrors and reflections. These stereotypes include the responsibility of helping around Carmen's household, and for Anna to eventually find a husband and maintain her own household and family. In order to do this, Carmen believed that Anna had to change her body image to one of a thinner woman. In doing this Carmen projects the hollywood cinematic gaze onto Anna, which not only objectifies and commodifies women as bodies by focusing on certain parts of their bodies, but also attempts to set standards for an "ideal" woman. Anna however, does not wish to conform to the stereotypes of her socio economic class, or to the confines that the cinematic gaze offers a woman. Instead she rebels against her mother, and decides that she is beautiful just the way she is, and that she will break from the confines of her social class and go off to college and do what she wishes.
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Summary: Real Women
Review: "Real Women Have Curves" is the story of a recently graduated high school student, Ana. We get a glimpse of a Latino family struggling to get above the stereotypes and in particular, Ana's ongoing war with her mother, Carmen. Ana is the first one to really grow up in America but her family is still very in touch with their culture, forcing Ana to be the same way. She wants to go to college and she knows she belongs there, but she lets the fact that her family is lower-middle class get in the way of applying.
According to her family, her life is supposed to mimic one of a lower class immigrant family; working for her parents, building a family, and staying home to care for them. The film introduces the viewer to the usual path of a Latina woman and then serves to shatter these stereotypes that they are constantly associated with. We see Ana try to overcome the barriers of her culture and proceed with a life of her own. She is portrayed as one who is comfortable with the way she looks, and has aspirations of going to college and leaving her family. By the end of the movie she has gone against the old fashioned ways of her mother and emerged despite the supposed "restrictions" of her culture and economic stance.
This is an entertaining film that is witty at times. The casting job is amazing and really helps to make the movie seem more realistic. Though it is a nice story, it is very predictable throughout.
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Summary: Showing my Professor what I've learned
Review: This film has relevance toward the lives of many young girls today. It illustrates how expectations on women, especially those of lower economic status, can cause hardships for young women. Carmen sets many stereotypical expectations on Anna as to how a proper Latina girl should act and grow as a woman. Anna, on the other hand, wants no part in domestication, and to be looked upon as an object for men. She realizes she's very curvy, but finds that she does not have to hide this just to be noticed by men; she does not have to partake in a stereotype just to please her mother, or to become and object for the 'male gaze'. Anna's character criticizes society's expectations on women, and reminds us that even a woman, a Latina woman with little money, can break free from the "proper" feminine characteristics and expectations; ideals passed down through the generations. Anna also reminds us that real women are not stick thin and are still beautiful and strong.
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Summary: Germ 241F: Michael Keller
Review: One of the hardest things in life is finding our identity. For some of us, it is a much harder task and getting their takes its toll on our emotions. In Real Women Have Curves,
Ana is a young, intelligent Mexican-American girl who finds herself stuck between obeying her mother's wishes by working at the factory with her mother steaming dresses or going on to college to further her education. Carmen (Ontiveros) plays Ana's mother; a stern, stereotypical Mexican-American variant of the working mother supporting and sacrificing for the better of the family. Unfortunately, Ana is caught in the fray as she struggles to find herself amidst the hardships of everyday life. At school, Ana is a very intelligent girl who works hard and displays a great talent for writing. Her teacher insists that she give college a try, whereas her mother maintains that Ana should stay at home and learn how to take care of her family and support for the family. Ana's father, who knows Ana's intentions, attempts to persuade Carmen that it is important to heed Ana's teacher's suggestion that she should try college and succeed. There are also very critical moments where the film tries to show that what makes a women isn't the way she is shaped physically, but the way that her will and confidence supercedes anything that anyone else perceives of her. Given what has been said, the film is a triumph of the force of human will.
One of the more interesting aspects of the film resides in its depiction of how we gaze at the female body. The film uses certain techniques to show us how to see each other in certain ways. Carmen, for instance, constantly refers to Ana as being "fat", and should try to lose weight. For Ana, it is psychologically damaging to hear such comments, especially from her mother. But in one scene of great testament, Ana strips off her clothes at work because she is too hot from the environment. Her mother insists she put her clothes back on, but is not only unsuccessful in that manner, but everyone else in the workplace takes off their clothes as well. Ana's mother loses the battle in this scenario, because Ana fights for her belief that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. By setting this example to the heavier women at work, they follow Ana's lead and give us a sense of victory for these women who are seen as "fat", or "overweight" by those who gaze upon them.
Much of the film is centered around the stereotypical nature of the Mexican-American family. We have Ana's mother, who goes to work for long hours at a sweatshop to support her family. Ana's father is seen doing chores around the yard and harder labor. We have the elder of the house, Ana's grandpa, who enjoys Ana's company and sympathizes with Ana's experience. As sequences progress throughout the entire film, we are enticed to think that perhaps Ana may fall into the reality, not the stereotype, of the situations faced each day. But she seeks escape in those hardships by engaging in a sexual relationship with a boy who likes her and finds excuses to leave her house. In essence, we are witnessing a rebellion by Ana, because of her actions. But, isn't that unfair? Should Ana have to rebel against such a lifestyle that she should be free to do as she pleases? The stereotypes presented certainly work against Ana's will to find freedom in a life of education, love, and freedom.
The intersection economics also plays a significant role in the film. There is a scene where Estela, Ana's sister, goes with Ana to ask for an extension for time to make dresses at her boss's office. Estela's boss is a terrible women; a greedy, selfless, and petulant woman who disallows the extension. It plays upon the stereotype of the common "Scrooge"-like boss who is strict to his or her employees. In this instance, it is the lack of man/women power, money, and time that puts Estela in a precarious situation at her work. This is a distinct scenario where for the first time we witness the hardships of being lower-classed and not as economically sturdy play an important role in shaping the films impression on perhaps a more economically stable audience.
The film is successful on delivering situations that seem almost inescapable for Ana, and more importantly, how she handles such adversity in her own family. To Ana, being beautiful is about being beautiful to one's self, and no one else. However, I felt the film was drawn out too long in certain situations, such as sequences at the sweatshop or the lack of communication with her mother that ultimately ends up in a respectful, yet saddening decision by the director, to decline a healthier mother-daughter relationship. But one thing good does arise in the end: Ana is free.
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Summary: Cute movie - could have been more
Review: It seems like the script was rushed - the characters aren't that developed and there's no real ending. We're just left hanging there without a true resolution to the story - what happens in New York, why didn't we see Ana wear the read dress, what happens to the dress factory, does Ana ever resolve things with her mother, do they ever get back at the dress buyer for being so mean to them, what happens with the boyfriend? These are just some of the questions that linger at the end of this movie. It's good to have some unresolved issues that make you think about the movie, but in this case it just seems unfinished, as if the producers were so intent on getting this out that they couldn't be bothered to fill in the blanks. Not a bad movie, but it seems more like the first installment of a series instead of a complete story.
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Summary: We're not all a size eight
Review: This is THE DVD to get if you want an insight into a seemingly 'overweight' teenager's life, with a strict, Catholic family. America Ferrera plays Ana (who's 5 days younger than me), a young girl rebelling against her family's wishes. She's a size 14/16, which is the average size for a UK female in this day and age, but America wears her size with pride.Ana comes across as really insecure with her figure, although she talks back to her mother (also overweight, as is most of her family) when she makes comments about her weight. After Ana sleeps with her boyfriend, she lets him see her in the mirror, in all her glory, but then when he says he'll phone/write/email when he goes away to teacher training college, she says no to all of them. And then comes out with a severely biting remark that he'll meet some skinny girl. Ana fights for what she believes in, against her Catholic parents. When they say she can't go to college, she goes behind their back and gets accepted. She does a lot of things, most of which probably aren't featured in the film. There is a terrific scene, which features a lot of the female members of the cast in a state of undress! It's the most hilarious scene. Ana goes to work with her sister in what basically could only be described as a sweatshop, and strips down to her bra and Bridget Jones knickers cos she's so hot. The rest of the female cast start to compare stretchmarks, ripples, lumps, bulges, in all their glory! It's the highlight of the whole film. What's disappointing about the ending, when Ana gets her way, and goes off to college in New York, her 'mama' doesn't want her to, and doesn't even give her blessing or go to the airport with her. There is no resolution to this subplot, and it's almost heartbreaking to see Ana leave home, without sorting things out with her mum. Many of the characters speak Spanish in this, and there are no subtitles, which kinda grates after a while. Ana seems to speak mainly English, until she says something rude about someone in Spanish. But the whole Spanish speaking when there are no subtitles is annoying. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a little bit here and there, but a chunk of the characters speak it. This a great movie for every girl to see out there. There are real women out there. There is no need to live on coffee & cigarettes, like some super skinny supermodels do. If you have curves, flaunt them - hell knows, I do! If you don't, go out and stuff your face, and don't regret it.
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Summary: A Well-Done Coming of Age Film
Review: I saw this movie in the same weekend I watched "Bend It Like Beckham," and the two movies are very similar in theme. "Real Women" is somewhat darker (but not much) and takes itself a little more seriously, but it's still a very good movie about a girl coming to terms with her family and herself in working-class L.A. It's a leisurely paced film and makes many good points about the stifling effects parents can have when they refuse to see the potential in their own children, and about the need for children to sometimes ignore the guilt they feel when they defy their parents in order to meet that potential. The young lady who stars does a mostly fine job with the role, but I never felt she was completely invested in what her family thought in the first place, so didn't fully appreciate the conflicts she was supposed to be having with herself over deserting them. The scene in which the group of female dress-shop workers strip down to compare cellulite and then proceed to work in the semi-nude is hilarious, and one of the film's highlights. Thoroughly enjoyable. Grade: B
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Summary: Comentarios de la película
Review: La película está muy bien, la recomiendo a todas todas. Está muy bien reflejada la cultura latina en EE.UU. el concepto mexicano de la unión familiar y del trabajo conjunto. La muchacha, ya segunda generación en EE.UU. es muy correcta en su opinión y sentir, siempre contextualizado dentro del papel que le es impuesto en su sociedad. La música es preciosa, lástima que en la BSO no aparezcan todos los títulos, por ejemplo falta el de Manu Chao y el tango de los títulos.
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Summary: Real women make this video a real winner
Review: There's no way you can't love this movie. Set in the Latino ghetto of East LA, this comic drama really rocks. A gifted, somewhat plump teenager is trying to make it out of the 'hood where her mother only wants her to give up her aspirations of college and get a job to help out her older sister's failing business. The women who work in what amounts to a literal sweat shop make up most of the cast of this movie - and most of them are "zaftig." When the temperature rises and the sweat is dripping off them, the women peel off their clothes (to the horror of Mama) and do a song-and-dance worthy of Vaudeville. It's all about female empowerment, as in "you go, girl!" And it's a winner, all the way.
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