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How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

Play trailer Poster for How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer R Released May 16, 2008 2h 8m Romance Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
79% Tomatometer 29 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
In a small Arizona town, the Garcia girls experience the joys and rigors of romantic love over the course of a summer. Grandmother Dona (Lucy Gallardo), head of the family, begins a relationship with her driving instructor, while her daughter, Lolita (Elizabeth Peña), tries to decide between getting involved with a co-worker or a married man. Meanwhile, teenager Blanca (America Ferrera) isn't interested in the unsophisticated local boys and falls for an exciting out-of-towner.
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

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Critics Consensus

At turns comical and sincere, Garcia Girls is an intelligent and intimate portrait of three women finding love at different ages.

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Critics Reviews

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Ben Kenigsberg Time Out Rated: 4/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Dennis Harvey Variety While there are rewards to sticking with this tempest-in-teapot saga of sexual awakening across three family generations of Mexican-American women, its pacing is leisurely to the brink of stasis. Oct 18, 2008 Full Review Bob Baker Los Angeles Times Another victory for a first-time, full-length feature filmmaker with a curious, inventive eye and an unsparing point of view. Rated: 4/5 Oct 18, 2008 Full Review Susan Tavernetti Palo Alto Weekly Stylistically, the film takes risks before veering into an odd sort of studied artiness. Rated: 2/4 Oct 18, 2008 Full Review Stan Hall Oregonian Pena has a great role and delivers her best performance since Lone Star in 1996. Aug 1, 2008 Full Review Josh Bell Las Vegas Weekly A lovingly crafted portrait of a kind of life not often seen on the big screen. Rated: 3/5 Jun 26, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Low-key, sometimes to the point of tedium. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Long,boring, and poorly directed. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member great family drama pena and ferrara have a good chemistry Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an extremly good movie...but its a littlemon the long end. I just saw so ,any things in this movie that could have used edits,other those parys the movoe is really good. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member LOVED this near perfect film. It was shot in such a beautiful way. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member When you do a movie about a dull and monotonous life, thats exactly what you get. A dull and monotonous movie. However, I did feel the atmosphere. I was bored the whole way through. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

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Movie Info

Synopsis In a small Arizona town, the Garcia girls experience the joys and rigors of romantic love over the course of a summer. Grandmother Dona (Lucy Gallardo), head of the family, begins a relationship with her driving instructor, while her daughter, Lolita (Elizabeth Peña), tries to decide between getting involved with a co-worker or a married man. Meanwhile, teenager Blanca (America Ferrera) isn't interested in the unsophisticated local boys and falls for an exciting out-of-towner.
Director
Georgina Garcia Riedel
Producer
Georgina Garcia Riedel, Olga Arana, Jose C. Mangual
Screenwriter
Georgina Garcia Riedel
Rating
R (Sexual Content|Some Language)
Genre
Romance, Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 16, 2008, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 12, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$91.4K
Runtime
2h 8m