Director Aurora Guerrero sets her minimally plotted slice-of-life film in the almost entirely Mexican immigrant community of Huntington Park, in southeast Los Angeles. Two 15-year-old girls, one a straight-A student, the other a troubled newcomer, form a bond that becomes, slowly and tentatively, something more than friendship.
Both teenagers are, naturally, far too sensitive for the callous, conformist world of high school. (Isn’t everyone?) Many details of the girls’ lives feel piercingly right, like the ill-fitting bra and chipped nail polish on Mari (Venecia Troncoso), or the way Yolanda (Fenessa Pineda), when she’s uncomfortable at parties or with mean-girl companions, goes still, as though hoping a guard dog won’t notice her.
Mari conceals her money anxieties and free-floating anger with bad-girl behavior such as smoking joints; Yolanda, adored by her straitlaced parents, keeps her head down and hits the books. Pineda’s round face and big eyes record every disturbance as quickly as the surface of a pond. The strikingly gorgeous Troncoso shows how Mari relishes attention for her looks one minute, and fears it the next.
“Mosquita y Mari” leaves an impression of collected scenes, rather than a smoothly knitted narrative. The movie avoids melodrama, content to let the young characters create their circle of two and watch as they try to fend off the world’s intrusions. Guerrero’s attitude toward the teenagers — understanding and affectionate, without being cloying — is what holds your interest.