gavin6942 Mousie and Sad Girl are childhood best friends in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Hispanic neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies.At the time of filming, most of the cast was made up of unknown actors, some of whom were actual gang members from Echo Park (such as Danny Trejo). It also includes the first film appearances from Salma Hayek and Jason Lee, in small roles. That last point makes the film important in its own strange way.I suppose you could see this film as something of a follow-up and answer to Dennis Hopper's "Colors". Set a few years later, it covers some of the same ground, just on a lower budget.

senortuffy This is a very interesting film about the girls who hang out with the gangbangers in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The focus shifts from one character to another, but the story is pretty much always told from the viewpoint of the girls.This movie is bittersweet to me because it documents much of the tragedy surrounding the senseless killings on the street but it also offers a vision of hope. The characters in the film are shown as real human beings - the director used a mix of actors and real people from the neighborhood. It's sad to see how innocent many of them are yet how easily the violence comes.Don't think this is just all shootings and beatings. It's mostly about the neighborhood and the people in it, and that's where the sweet in bittersweet comes from. Even amid all the tragedy, men and women hook up with each other, babies are born, life goes on. It's not the melodrama of "West Side Story", it's more a poignant look at life in the Echo.Production values lag at times but this is still a very fine movie and one of my favorites.

Agent10 Sadly, this film really didn't do much for the budding Mexican cinema. While some might think this is a good reflection of Mexican culture, it is more like a Mexican version of Smoke Signals, which also portrayed its target demographic in a rather odd way. Nonetheless, this film did have an early incantation of Salma Hayek, which I will give it props. Beside that, it's best you stay away.

tashab3384 I'm a High school student in Chicago. The movie was okay, but it was nothing I would have spent my money on to go see.It was about gangs. There was a lot of violence in this movie.The main characters in this movie were Mona, Mousie, and Ernesto. Mona and Mousie were best friends they grew up together. Things fell apart when they both start sleeping with the same boy,Ernesto. They found out about each other, and their friendship fell apart. They wanted to kill each other. Ernesto got killed. This movie was nothing new I see this almost everyday gangs, killings, girls having babies by the same boy and always fighting.