Wonderful Movie

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

East Side Love Story is about Diego Campos and his quest to get out of East L.A. and become a chef in his own restaurant. Along the way he finds that sometimes to get away from home, you just need to stay where you are.First off, the good parts. I liked the acting and the set design. The restaurant in particular reminded me of some of the places I grew up eating in. To me, that's a bonus.The acting, while heavy handed at times, didn't seem devoid of heart. René Alvarado (Diego) seemed to finally find his voice near the end of the movie. The rest of the cast were fun, if stereotypical, parts. Pablo, the closeted boyfriend. Wesley, the new neighbor with a problem. Bianca, the crazy aunt (or sister, depending on the writer). The understanding and wise maternal figure, Sara. All played to the fullest and farthest the actor could go.The bad parts: The acting, while good, was deeply uneven. Most of the actors tended to "sell to the cheap seats" instead of going for smaller actions. The writing was manic and led to uneven pacing. The whole back and forth between two characters, while building drama, was kind of tedious.The cinematography. Again, while not terrible, shots seemed to go for more group shots than anything else. Reactions were off camera. In particular a scene between Diego and Westley left all of Diego's dialog being delivered while the back of his head was to camera.The worst offence is the lighting. Maybe it was the copy I watched, but I couldn't see what the hell was going on some of the time. It honest to god looked like it was being lit by a flashlight ... with a dying battery.All in all though, I would watch it again. Though, not without a glass of wine first.

Ah, to remember the past. Sure, I realize East Side Story came out (on DVD) in 2007, and probably made way before that, but it was surely stuck in the early 1990s. The themes: coming out, closeted individuals, family acceptance of homosexuality, stereotypes and racism is sooo 1992. And you know what? It was refreshing.It was a nice and warm reminder to days past. And this low-budget, independent gay-themed movie was actually well made (filmed) and held enough interest to watch to the end. Sure, it had a familiar plot, enormously stereotypical characters and predictable outcomes, but, strangely, enjoyable.The movie begins with two closeted characters, Diego (enormously hot, but unfortunately straight, Rene Alvarado) and confused real estate agent, Pablo (David Beron) roll-playing sexual encounters. It's obviously doomed, and Diego has to learn to live on his own.His parents passed on and he lives and works with his grandmother at an apparently authentic Mexican food restaurant in a very depressing, racist and homophobic neighborhood. Diego wants out and over to Phoenix. (Side Note: I wished he had at least visited the Valley of the Sun, as I am currently living there. So few films are shown here.) He meets the new neighbors and it's predictable that he falls for attached Wesley (Steve Callahan.) It takes awhile, but you know what's coming.The movie is hard to watch, for some of the racist jokes/statements and throws you a curveball for being a "light romantic comedy" and then shows scenes of explicit sexual encounters or nudity (just backsides and bare chests,) even though the movie begins with a dark-shot blow-job, most of the movie could've been shown edited on LOGO.A friend had been recommending East Side Story to me for a long while, so I finally got around to seeing it. I'm glad I did. It's not groundbreaking, but had some decent acting (though I never truly believed Diego was an educated chef, despite them "telling" us he was,) very funny dialogue (at times,) good eye-candy and a touching throwback to the early 1990s gay-themed film-making. It's harmless fun, if you can understand where the characters are coming from and know soap operas aren't necessarily reserved for heterosexuals.

With the high score here on IMDb, I was expecting far more than this film delivered. East Side Story is technically fine with respectable acting, yet the plot was just so much frothy fluff with nothing to bite into. There's no tension or drama, and not enough laughs to be a comedy either.There are dozens of gay-themed films available that have a sharper edge and allow the viewer to actually feel something instead of watching a few gay men in a cheesy, predictable, plain-vanilla sitcom. Admittedly, many of the best movies are foreign -- which is fine by me. If you haven't already, view the many titles from Latin America, Europe and Asia for a sharper taste and story lines you won't find from US studios. Can't honestly give ESS any more than 4 stars out of 10.

Fresh young talent and a healthy dollop of enthusiasm serve as the springboard of this well written (Carlos Portugal and Charo Toledo), well directed (Carlos Portugal) and well acted exuberant story of those once perceived tightly closet doors of the East Los Angeles Hispanic community. Not that this is the first film to engage the topic of being gay in East LA - QUINCEAÑERA is another superb film on the subject - but it addresses so many other aspects of family and social life happening now that it deserves a wide audience. With a cast of newcomers coupled with some very fine veterans of the screen EAST SIDE STORY comes to life in a highly entertaining fashion.Closeted schooled chef Diego Campos (a fine debut by René Alvarado) works as a waiter in his grandmother Sara's (elegant Irene DeBari) little Mexican restaurant where grumpy homophobic chef Don Rogelio (Luis Accinelli) presides in the kitchen. Diego dreams of opening his own restaurant but family ties keep him grounded. Diego's campy Aunt Bianca (Gladise Jimenez) returns from Monaco on one of her many expensive sojourns to find a man and changes begin to happen. Diego's equally closeted boyfriend Pablo Morales (David Berón) has been refusing to settle down in a relationship with Diego, claiming that the union is a 'passing fancy'. When Bianca enters, Pablo's attentions turn to the sexy lady and Diego is brokenhearted.Into this mélange enters a white gay couple who buy a 'flip' house across the street, a signal to the neighborhood that gentrification is just around the corner. The couple - Wesley (Steve Callahan) and Jonathan (Cory Schneider) - meet the morose Diego and a match strikes between Diego and Wesley. Jonathan is assigned all the lines having to do with prejudice and is the one who wants out of the neighborhood as soon as their house is enhanced and their gay friends begin to visit. The white couple move apart and Wesley and Diego begin a courtship dance that is encouraged by Diego's family. How Diego handles his loss of Pablo to his Aunt Bianca and copes with the possibility of being open with Wesley forms the story line. It is all the hilarious and not so hilarious sidebars that share the space of the 'outing' that make the film so personal and successful.Carlos Portugal is clearly a talent to watch, as are his attractive and talented cast members. EAST SIDE STORY is a fine companion piece to QUINCEAÑERA and should enjoy the same degree of popularity for all the same reasons! Grady Harp