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The Bronx, the 1990s: Brendan (Jimi Stanton) is a hard-working young
deli employee. Eva (Princess Nokia) is the first in her family of Puerto
Rican immigrants to apply for college. They both have their own problems,
Brendan's mother (Erin Davie) is an alcoholic who's much more interested
in having fun with her new boyfriend (Bryan Shany) while leaving it to
Brendan to sort out his younger brother Conor (Stanley Somons), and Eva
lovingly takes care of her mentally challenged brother Julio (Ivan Mendez)
while trying to live up to her mother's very "traditional"
expectations and trying to suppress her ambitions to become an actress.
But when Brendan and Eva first meet, it's pretty much love on first sight,
and even their different cultural and societal backgrounds can't keep them
apart. But then Conor gets booked by the police and Julio falls out of his
wheelchair while Brendan and Eva have been out on a (rather innocent)
date, and suddenly their very young love faces a real challenge, but makes
each of them individually ask themselves what they really want from life
... Angelfish is above all else a very compelling drama
about finding one's place in life, and even if the cultural differences
between the leads are the actual catalyst of the conflict in this movie,
the overriding theme seems universal, and my guess is everyone has at some
point (or still is) lived through something somewhat similar to either or
both of the protagonists - and that's thanks to a very subtle directorial
effort that doesn't try to hammer its point home but rather lets it
develop gradually, and a couple of very grounded lead performances that
make their situations "real". Sure, a drama of this ilk is not
everyone's cup of tea, but if you're up for a story like this, you'll be
richly rewarded, as the film's not only food for thought but also manages
to tell its story in a fittingly intimate way.
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