From the boys who gave you The Fluffer (2001), that exposé of the gay porn industry (as well as a primary proponent for putting that coinage into general usage), comes Quinceanera, a coming-of-age tale about Magdalena, a fourteen-year-old Mexican almost-virgin, and her comely gay cousin, Carlos. 

Written and directed by life and business partners, Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, Quinceanera might be expected to deliver politically correct gay characters, but if there are villains in this bittersweet tale, most audience members might argue it’s the upscale gay couple who own the house in which Magdalena and Carlos find themselves living with their great-uncle.  As the gentrifying landlords, the two gay men come closest to caricature and cliché with their perfect color schemes and innate design sense, and when their seduction scene with Carlos commences, you can almost hear Gene Shalit tearing off his hairpiece as he screams, “Predators!  Predators!” 

With its appealing characters and its strong belief in family, regardless of how the word is defined, Quinceanera evokes another film from another summer, Raising Victor Vargas – and what both films share is a belief in the wisdom of our elders, those who have lived long enough to know that it’s love that matters most, wherever it’s found.