Desi's Looking for a New Girl

Desi's Looking for a New Girl
Directed by	Mary Guzmán
Produced by	Fontana Butterfield; Mary Guzmán
Screenplay by	Mary Guzmán
Starring	Desi del Valle; Yesenia Aguirre; Sandra Carola
Cinematography	Sophie Constantinou
Edited by	Lidia Szajko
Production; company	Mary Guzmán Productions
Release date	16 June 2000
Running time	68 minutes
Country	USA
Language	Spanish, English

Desi's Looking for a New Girl is a 2000 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Mary Guzmán.

Synopsis

Desi (Desi del Valle) is a young Latina artist living in San Francisco, and is involved in the Latina lesbian scene there. She becomes depressed when her girlfriend leaves her. Efforts by her friends to set her up with various women fail, as each blind date is more comical than the last, and Desi finds each to be "Ms. Wrong". The story is told by one of Desi's friends, skateboarder JT (Yesenia Aguirre), who in her own storyline dreams of meeting comic Marga Gomez, her idol.

Cast

Desi del Valle as Desi
Yesenia Aguirre as JT
Marga Gomez as Herself
Sandra Carola
Rosa Medina
Michelle T. Cordero
Richard A. Bracho
Alisa Rodriguez
Janelle Jacoo

Release

Desi's Looking for a New Girl premiered at the 2000 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Reception

Variety critic Dennis Harvey panned the film. He wrote that while the milieu of the film – the Latina lesbian culture of San Francisco's Mission District – is potentially interesting, the film itself is "uneventful and padded even at 68 slim minutes" and that it fails "to develop any narrative or characters to draw us in."[1] The review in the Chicago Reader was equally harsh, calling the film a "long-winded [and] technically clumsy comedy." Reviewer Ted Shen also viewed the film as a missed opportunity for a worthwhile glimpse into the Latina lesbian dating scene.[2]

The Curves magazine review, on the other hand, calls the film "a fun and uniquely told story of life after a long-term relationship ends." Reviewer Lauren Shiro called the love and support between the characters "palpable" and "very endearing", and opined that the storytelling sweeps the viewer in, making "you feel very much like a part of the story."[3]

The film has been cited in several books and academic papers on Latina and lesbian Latina cultural representation.[4][5]

Awards

2000 L.A. Outfest - Mary Guzmán won the Outstanding Emerging Talent award (tied with Patrik-Ian Polk for Punks (2000))

References

Harvey, Dennis (17 July 2000). "Desi's Looking For A New Girl". Variety. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
Shen, Ted. "Desi's Looking for a New Girl". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
Shiro, Lauren. "Kamikaze Hearts and Desi's Looking for a New Girl". www.curvemag.com. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
Fitch, Melissa A. (2009-06-25). Side Dishes: Latina American Women, Sex, and Cultural Production. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813548531.
Conference, REFORMA (Association) National (2001). The Power of Language: Selected Papers from the Second REFORMA National Conference. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563089459.

External links

Desi's Looking for a New Girl on IMDb

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[1] Harvey, Dennis (17 July 2000). "Desi's Looking For A New Girl". Variety. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[2] Shen, Ted. "Desi's Looking for a New Girl". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[3] Shiro, Lauren. "Kamikaze Hearts and Desi's Looking for a New Girl". www.curvemag.com. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[4] Fitch, Melissa A. (2009-06-25). Side Dishes: Latina American Women, Sex, and Cultural Production. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813548531.

[5] Conference, REFORMA (Association) National (2001). The Power of Language: Selected Papers from the Second REFORMA National Conference. Libraries Unlimited. ISBN 9781563089459.