Selena (1997)
By: Gregory Nava (director, writer)
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda
The true story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a Texas born tejano singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart topping albums on the Latin music charts.
Despite being a child of the 90s, I hadn’t seen Selena until this week when I watched it for one of my film classes. I can’t profess to feeling I missed much, and while it may have tugged on many heartstrings with its initial release swift on the heels of Selena’s tragic death, it isn’t half the movie it could have been.
Jennifer Lopez does a good job as the young singer, and it’s easy enough to see why this movie catapulted her to stardom. The film itself, however, is mediocre at best; a wishy-washy, squeaky-clean version of events. If this movie is to be believed, Selena lived the life of a Disney princess from the time she was a kid. These are real life events, and I had a hard time believing they happened. The editing was choppy, the character development sub-par for everyone but Selena and her father. Even if the script wasn’t actually rushed in an effort to get the movie to the screen as soon as possible, it sure seemed like it was. It could have been better. It should have been better, and definitely isn’t what I’d consider “classic” material.
TBS used to show this and “La Bamba” all the time, to the point where we were like “Oh yes, it’s the ‘Latin Stars Who Died In Their Prime’ weekend again!”