Girl in Progress

Good movie!

source: Girl in Progress

Nice blend of comedy & drama. Having experienced growing up with a single mother who had me when she was 19, this movie was spot on about growing up as the adult to your immature parent. Cierra Ramirez was brilliant as the adult child, so mature yet inexperienced. Meanwhile Eva Mendes was completely convincing as the immature mom, with mixed up values. Perhaps it is only appealing to those of us who grew up like that. Well done movie!

Val I don't like the clothes you wear did your parents say you can wear that. Would you wear that stuff to a job interview. Your best friend is different than you and ansiedad never made fun of that. You should get help Val. You're a bully but I should have told Ansiedad to to make fun of Shannons skin skin color instead of Tavitas weight.

A young and cute teen girl wants to become a woman and will do anything to achieve it even betray her best friend who is unattractive. She wants to stay with the cool girl in her high-school but this does not come for free and she must provide alcohol for them and the party or give them hall-passes. in the mean time her mother struggles at her workplace and face the stress that she has every day being a waitress at a restaurant with impatient and demanding customers. She also has a secret adventure with the man for witch she works as a maid. An medium drama I would say, the film is quite frustrating at one time and becomes modest but I manage to see it without interruptions. It is good for a drama but for the story is just ordinary, I have seen this kind mother-daughter relationship in other movies. So view it if you want to fill your time in one afternoon specially if it rains outside, then the movie becomes more bearable.

Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez) is tired of her irresponsible mother Grace (Eva Mendes) especially her affair with the married Dr. Harford (Matthew Modine). Her only friend at school is Tavita (Raini Rodriguez). After a lesson from English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette), she decides to perform her version of rites of passage. She befriends bad girl Valerie (Brenna O'Brien) and dumps Tavita. Her ultimate goal is to lose her virginity to bad boy Trevor (Landon Liboiron) and run away to NYC. Grace's boss Emile (Russell Peters) is looking to cook at the Crab Fest competition but he's reluctant to leave her in charge of his restaurant. The concept is interesting. It kind of reminds of 'The To Do List' except Ramirez is a real teen. I expected this to be a comedy but then it takes jarring turns into dark drama. The production by Mexican director Patricia Riggen is TV level with some good actors. Patricia Arquette showing up surprised me a little. I like the characters in this movie but I couldn't get a handle on its tone. It seems to be a light kid's movie at first but then it throws some very adult situations.

Now I know, you're already scrolling by this review thinking "She gave it a five, it must suck." Don't do that. I'm giving this movie a five for three reasons. One) It's slow to start. You never really feel anything for the characters until late in the middle. The only character that you actually feel compassion towards is Tavita (Raini Rodriguez). At least, that's how it was for me. For a long time, you're watching the movie but you're not really invested and you're only vaguely interested in what might happen next. Two) Some of the plot lines, like many in Hollywood, are a little far fetched. The entire Crab Shack is ridiculous because no self respecting owner would leave "all he has" to a woman he doesn't 100% trust. The theft was ridiculous as well. (Including the way "Mission Impossible" "solves" it.) The party scene with the movie's "mean girl" was a little out there (and by a little, I mean, in what world would an entire party throw drinks on a girl for having sex?) Three) Every time it would have a moment that you think "Dang, that was actually pretty moving" or "Wow, that was some impressive acting" it gets ruined moments later by an needless line or sequence. For instance, near the end when Grace is pulling Ansiedad off the bus, it's fantastic. The line "I'm not letting you go" is powerful and Eva delivers it beautifully. But then the seemingly endless chase scene takes away from the overall impact of the fight and resolution. Even after these three faults in the movie, I enjoyed it. I think Eva was fantastic as a mother who doesn't quite have it together. There were scenes that brought a tear to my eye and that made me laugh. The star players were Eva Mendes, Patricia Arquette, and Raini Rodriguez. There were some moments where Cierra Ramirez really nailed the misunderstood teenager, and others where she kind of made you cringe. Overall, I would watch this movie again. I might even buy it, if I found it in the 5 dollar bin at Walmart. Is it award worthy? No. Will it change your life? Probably not. But it does have some heart and some humor.

Every bad parent should watch this movie to try and break the cycle. Eva was great in this and very believable. Highly recommend. A bit of a tear jerker.

Some films are beautifully understated in their power and presence and resonate with audiences for years to come, then, there are films like Girl in Progress. The 2012 film by Patricia Riggen was completely contrived in its use of clichés, even though the point of the film was supposed to be to poke holes in clichés. Eva Mendes & Patricia Arquette join with Cierra Ramirez to expose the lengths a child will go to escape a disinterested parent and speed their own maturity and growth. Mother/daughter relationships aren't always the seamless pinnacle of female bonding and connection that we often imagine, as Girl in Progress painfully proves. Grace (Eva Mendes) stars as a self-absorbed spoiled single mother who had a child when she was still very young herself and refused to put her child first until she almost lost her. Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez) is a young girl who is dragged around from city to city on her mother's whim unable to settle down and root herself in any one place. To make matters worse, Ansiedad, a full-time high school student is also the sole caretaker of the home she shares with her mother. The cook, the maid, and her mother's personal assistant, Ansiedad is often left to her own devices at nights when her mother leaves to pursue her many male suitors. One day, in English class, Ansiedad is inspired to write her own coming-of-age story. She writes a fool-proof plan that will result in her inevitable maturity and enough life resources to leave her absent mother. Her only ally, her English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette) attempts to help her along the way, as much as a teacher can and eventually reaches the child to help her realize that experiencing a series of events in a prescribed order will not automatically bring about maturity. Along this journey, when she finds the time, Grace attempts to repair the damage done to her and her daughter's relationship. This film had a very Lifetime network feel to it, taking an hour and a half to illustrate the very obvious points that you cannot plan out your life, and no one really knows that they're doing while on earth. Taking so much time to demean the use of clichés while simultaneously using them was a filmmaking decision that fell flat. Skip this journey of mother/daughter bonding, you're not missing anything.

This comedy-drama about the Mexican family living in America talks about a girl who wants to be an adult in a short period of time. With the usual teen comedy, the story goes all around showcasing a girlie side of mischievous behavior. This was not a great teen movie, but acceptable. It's just letting us know what happen when teens are not supervised carefully by their parents. Clearly to say, it briefs the differences between maturity and the word opposite to that. A struggling poor family of mother-daughter's life is not getting better, instead becomes worse everyday. Grace (Eva Mendis) has been busy all day between her two jobs and a relationship with a married which put her daughter, Annsiedad in a negligence state. Since Annsiedad's mother is not giving any attention towards her, she grows a rebellious character within. One day she decides to become an adult by discarding all the childish character in her once she had experienced them all. So she makes a list to encounter 'coming-of-age' and leave behind her childhood. The plan won't end, according to she arranged. Takes a diverted path and the conclusion of the story is what delivers a message for parents who is so careless of their children. ''So now I'm free to fly. And I hop on a bus to adult-ville. My coming of age story is complete. Roll end credits. Bring up the house light. I am not a kid anymore.'' The whole first half was like a silly teen movie with usual narration and there is nothing special about it to highlight. The humors that is not really funny kind of stuffs. Maybe we get used to it for seeing in every teen movie. The last quarter is what makes the sense, a lesson is to learn from it, for that you have to watch the whole movie. Teens want everything to be done so quickly, slow and steady is not meant for them. In such a concept this movie happens which reminds a proverb 'Rome was not built in a day'. The casting was good, both, the mother character played by Eva Mendis and her daughter's was shelved very well. After seeing a fair end scene I thought the script should have had a little stronger in the initial portions to balance its overall strength. Anyway, an average movie, but can be enjoyed if you are not too serious about what you want to watch.