Fat Friends gets a Hispanic spin in this crowd-pleasing comedy set in Los Angeles' vibrant Mexican-American community. Winner of two gongs at Sundance, its gloriously full-figured heroine is Ana (America Ferrera), a gifted 18-year-old set to become the first member of her Latino family to go to college.
First, though, she must confront her domineering mother Carmen (Chuck & Buck's Lupe Ontiveros), who has something different in mind for her: a soul-crushing job at her sister's garment factory, followed swiftly by arranged marriage and maternity.
It sounds like My Big Fat Mexican Daughter, but Patricia Cardoso's insightful comedy - based on Josephina Lopez's autobiographical play - has much to say on the generation gap, ethnic minorities and, most tellingly, the huge disparity between haute couture fantasy and the curvaceous reality of ordinary women's bodies. Just check out the scene in which Ana persuades her sweatshop compadres to strip off and celebrate their spare tyres - - it will strike a chord with pizza munchers everywhere.
