'Quinceañera' celebrates a community and its complex characters

Are there any cultural rites of passage left that have not yet been transformed into alternate versions of senior prom? In "Quinceañera" a familiar Hispanic custom marking a girl's 15th birthday is used to highlight the struggle between traditionalism and "progress" in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood. The filmmakers are at least a bit sympathetic to both sides.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Quinceañera' Three out of five stars Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland Starring: Emily Rios, Chalo González, David W. Ross, Araceli Guzman-Rico, Jesus Castanos-Chima Run time: 90 minutes Release date: August 4, 2006 Rating: R for language, some sexual content and drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Quinceanera'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Shot in documentary style and cast with unknown or nonprofessional actors, the movie has a homegrown feel and a strong sense of place. We're on the front lines of gentrification, where real-estate-hungry Anglos encroach on a neighborhood as Mexican American kids who grew up there can hardly wait to escape.

The story is bookended by two quinceañeras, the first of which is a model of conspicuous consumption: A group of teens fill a Hummer limo, egging on the birthday girl to writhe like a stripper around the light-up pole in the truck's passenger compartment.

This will be a hard party to top for Magdalena, whose family couldn't afford such gaudy frills even if Dad (who takes quite seriously the tradition's religious significance) could be persuaded to allow it. That hardly matters, as Magdalena is about to have a lot more on her mind than tux-and-gown parties.

For one thing, she's pregnant — and, in a development resonating with her Catholic heritage, she isn't sure how she got that way. Cast out of her home in disgrace, she is taken in by a kindly old uncle, Tomas, who's already caring for her cousin Carlos. (We don't know at first how Carlos found himself homeless; although he has a tender side toward Tio Tomas, he acts like a generic tough guy.)

This makeshift nuclear unit becomes the focus of the easygoing film, which contains its share of melodrama but doesn't wallow in it. Tomas' home is a shacklike oasis, tucked within an overgrown garden behind a much larger house, and for a little while it feels like an Eden in which no transgression is held against its inhabitants. Writing/directing team Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland relish this little refuge, and the only characters in the film who are made to look shallow or mean are those who refuse to treat Magdalena, Carlos or Tomas with respect.

Then again, that describes almost everybody in the tale — from capricious landlords to domineering fathers, from cliquish schoolgirls to the poor mama's boy who plays doting Joseph to Magdalena's Virgin Mary. The movie is too slight to work up animosity toward these villains — or maybe it just knows in the back of its head that they're human, too. Either way, they're obviously not the point in this likable celebration of the misfits, loners and traditionalists that give a community its character.