Mi Vida Loca

Allison Anders's 1994 film centres young Latina women growing up inside gang culture in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles, and building that story around women rather than men was unusual for its moment. Mousie and Sad Girl have been friends since childhood; when they have children by the same man, the bond turns to enmity. The film shows the man as the cause and then keeps him at the margin, because the real subject is what the women do to each other and what the neighbourhood has left them. Anders cast part of the film from the neighbourhood itself and split the narration among several voices, refusing a single central point of view. That structure is the film's most original feature and also its loosest: some threads stay where they started. Who it's for: viewers interested in 1990s American independent cinema and in Chicana experience told in women's own words. Who it's not for: anyone expecting the tension and action of a gang film, or who will read the fragmented narration as a lack of focus.