Search - Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) on DVD

Highly recommended story about life on the streets

David Clapp | TN USA | 05/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)" is an HBO movie about Hispanic girls growing up in Echo Park. Each main character was allowed to tell his or her story and the director effectively blended these lives into a tale about real people facing death on the streets. It shows what it means to belong to a neighborhood, how the neighborhood gangs provide support, and how people, especially women, cope with the deaths around them. There were no "bad" people here, just nice kids who accept murder as an effective way to solve problems in a dangerous environment. I highly recommend the film to anyone who has seen "Kids" for a more mundane but believable take on poor urban teens."

Mi Vida Loca - Echo Park stories

Bonnie Sayers | Los Angeles, CA | 10/20/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The movie was filmed on location and uses Echo Park and Sunset Boulevard as well as the Lake at the freeway exit throughout the 100 minutes of film. I have lived in Echo Park for six years now and learned of this movie after being here for a few years.

The movie consists of three vignettes with each character narrating on the sound track. Los Lobos plays at a club, Salma Hayek has a small role, as does Maurice Benard of All My Children and General Hospital fame. The original music is by John Taylor, formerly with Duran Duran and Power Station. The language is mostly English, but the lingo is hard to keep up with if you are not familiar with Latino jargon. Words like homeboy, barrio, locos are commonly used and there are no real parental role models in this flick.

I was interested in seeing what Echo Park was like ten years ago and how it has changed over time. It was very strange to see street corners, phone booths and stores in a movie that I have physically passed by numerous times. It was disturbing as a parent to view the language that was used in front of small children and the fact that drinking and smoking was done during the day in their presence as well. The girls always had their cigarettes and drink but then would complain about not having enough money for juice for a baby. This is not a movie that shows youth looking for work or furthering their studies. This generation looked to the males to take care of them, but the realization that the opposite sex would be dead or in jail by the time they hit twenty-one was evident.

Mi Vida Loca - My Crazy Life centers on two girls who have been friends since childhood. They join the gang life at the same time and obtain the names Sad Girl and Mousie. Sad Girl is hooked up with Ernesto, a drug-dealer, until she turns her attention to their newborn daughter and Ernesto in turn moves on to Mousie. Mousie soon ends up pregnant, has a son with Ernesto and the girls are now enemies.

The video had dark elements to it, but it did not exploit gang life. The focus was more on the bonding of some characters and then another issue would be raised and it continued in this fashion. This was based on real life stories with some of the actual people portraying themselves. The director lived in the area and after some time got close enough to the young girls in the neighborhood to learn about their lives. The area has grown and prospered with many new businesses moving in and a more diversified ethnic background.

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Mi vida loca

gigglezcr | miami | 03/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"i think this movie is one of the best chicana films out there.. i grew up in echo parc for 6 years of my life.. and im only 15 now and echo parc is really like this i mean its crazy i mean [it]...exaggerates a lil at some stuff but it mostly speaks the truth about how growing up chicana isnt all fun.. its hard and its even harder growing up in the barrio and that you gotta go thru stuggles and you cant let noone get you down and you have to be proud of what you. i think this movie is one of the best movie out there..and the names LMAO barrio gangs really have names like that my bestfriend's name is Sadgirl and they call me Gigglez.. in our locas.. so i recommend this movie to anyone and everyone who wants to learn about chicana gangs..."

Unflinchingly realistic look at Latina gang life in Echo Par

D. Pawl | Seattle | 09/23/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I first saw this film, some five years ago, it truly knocked the breath out of me. For the first time, director Allison Anders gives us a glimpse into Mexican-American gang life in East LA's Echo Park, from the female perspective, this time. In the past, we have seen our share of male experiences (example being Zoot Suit, written by the playwright Luis Valdez). For once, we see the gritty side of the gang life, as young Mexicanas (or Chicanas, depending on who you ask) struggle to stay alive, amidst rampant drug dealing, the violence of gang initiation and their relationships with men who are less than honorable to them.

Mi Vida Loca is actually a trilogy of stories. (Mousie & Sad Girl, Lowrider and La Blue Eyes) The first is the story of a life long friendship between fellow gang members, Mousie (Seidy Lopez) and Sad Girl (Angel Aviles). These young women are best friends, until the day that Sad Girl sleeps with Mousie's boyfriend, Ernesto (Jacob Vargas), and becomes pregnant with his child. The world they knew before is ruptured, as is their lifelong connection as friends. The second story takes a glimpse in LowRider culture. This culture is perpetuated by, predominantly, young Chicanos who build their lives around re-finishing and airbrushing "low rider" cars (many, old school Chevies), complete with flashy airbrush images (example being voluptuous women and gang affiliations), trick tires and rims. This story is actually a wonderful example of modern magical realism, when the car takes on a life of its own. The third story is centered around La Blue Eyes, a beautiful BROWN-EYED woman who is writing to a convict, that she falls in love with through the exchange of letters. The question is, when they finally meet, will the sum of those letters even measure up to their encounter, or has the young woman ultimately been deceived, the whole time?

I reccomend this film, if not for the fact that it is compelling, but that this is an important culture in society we should all learn something more about. A very important study in gang life, and how it evolves in a neighborhood that many only hear about on the evening news, but never get to know."