Mi Vida Loca--My Crazy Life

This ambitious film about the young women of LA's Hispanic gangsta subculture proves that using a partly non-professional cast doesn't guarantee a dramatically effective slice of realism. Admittedly, MI VIDA LOCA represents an advance in the area of ethnic verisimilitude--a few years ago, talented director Allison Anders (GAS, FOOD, LODGING) might have been forced to work with Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Martha Plimpton in sepia-face. Still, the mixed professional and non-professional cast lacks the artistic seasoning to shape a screenplay that's largely anecdotal and amorphous.

In Echo Park, a Hispanic neighborhood of Los Angles, girlhood friends Sad Gi...