No watersports or ball games for these girls

Review

Grand Jury Prize-nominated Sundance darling How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer, a low-budget character study which looks like it's been funded with couch change and promises of dish washing a go-go, is not a film to fly into looking for a stirring plot or copious entertainment. Neither is it a film full of comedy gold or even general amusement, despite ranking Ugly Betty's America Ferrera among its leads. And if it's heart-wrenching drama or powerhouse performances you're after, you best check out another Elizabeth Peña film. First time director Georgina Riedel casts a spell of undeniable indie charm, and not a lot else, in this quiet - almost too quiet - exploration of three generations of Garcia women (hence the title), as grandmother, mother and daughter each experience a sexual awakening during a long hot summer in an Arizona bordertown. There's not a lot to Garcia Girls, the film motivated by the individual experiences of each family member, and as such has more in common with a modern mood piece like Lost in Translation than most of its cash-starved start-up luminaries looking for a fast hook. That said, it's nothing like Coppola's opus, with neither an interesting script or story nor particularly mentionable turns by the female stars. Riedel's directorial inexperience comes through in some clumsy maneuvering and strict adherence to the low-budget handbook, and no amount of painstakingly-framed camera shots can cover the fact that this is as niche as niche films get, and unless you're an arthouse cowboy with the time to waste on the instantly forgettable, you're probably not going to care what these girls get up to, whatever the season.