My Family (1995)

Academy Awards, USA 1996

Nominated Oscar

Best Makeup Ken Diaz Mark Sanchez

New Line Cinema
Directed by Gregory Nava
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, New Line)

A man narrates the history of his family from Mexico, where his father left home, to east LA, where he raised several generations of children. It is told in three time periods: the 20s/30s when his father scraped out a living during the Depression; the 50s when one of his brothers becomes a gang member; and the 80s, when another brother loses his wife and struggles to relate to their child. The handsome production design is wasted on an episodic story that resembles the Mexican soap operas his mother likes to watch on TV. Characters are too often broad stereotypes that come and go before you know them at all. Cute kids pop up constantly, none more annoying than the last one who speaks with a lisp and ruins every scene. Gregory Nava also directed the similarly themed El Norte about 10 years earlier, an infinitely better and more realistic film.