Selena (1997)

Recommendation: See

Vitals

Runtime: 127 minutes

Directed by: Gregory Nava
Written by: Gregory Nava

Starring

Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers, Out of Sight)
Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice, Stand and Deliver)
Jon Seda (Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire)
Jackie Guerra (Picking up the Pieces, First Time Out)

Synopsis

This movie follows the life of famed Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla (Jennifer Lopez) from her earliest days up until her untimely death.

In the early 1960s, Abraham Quintanilla (Edward James Olmos) leads a struggling Tejano band called “The Dinos”. After the band fails, he gets married and starts a family. He can’t give up music and decides to open a Mexican restaurant and feature his family as the house band. His daughter, Selena, who was selected as the singer, becomes a hit with the audience. She becomes so popular that after the restaurant closes, he decides to lead her in a music career. It becomes a family affair with Abraham serving as the manager, booker, and promoter and the rest of his children, Abraham III (A.B.) (bass guitar) (Jacob Vargas) and Suzette (drums)(Jackie Guerra) performing in the band. They travel the country as Selena performs, records, and gains popularity outside of her native Texas.

In the early 1990s, they hire a new guitarist, Chris Pérez (Jon Seda), who brings a heavy metal flavor to the band. Selena falls for him and they develop a relationship, despite Abraham’s dismay. She continues to tour, eventually eloping with Chris without her father’s knowledge. With her growing popularity, she creates a fan club and hires Yolanda Saldivar (Lupe Ontiveros) to manage it. It eventually comes to light that Yolanda is embezzling the money from the fans and not sending them any swag. Just as Selena confronts her, Yolanda fatally shoots Selena leading to her untimely death at age 23.

Analysis

I went into this movie with no knowledge about Selena nor having heard any of her music. I found the movie entertaining and the music was both catchy and enjoyable (particularly Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Como La Flor). All of the characters came across as real and likeable. At times, Abraham can come across as controlling. Initially, his kids are not excited about starting a life of music. They were just kids and wanted to play outside with their friends. However, he made them stay inside and practice regularly. There is also a conflict where Suzette does not want to play the drums. She would rather sing and there is a lot of tension between her and Abraham.

Eventually, once Selena starts her career and the kids start to see the benefit of their practice, they begin to enjoy a life of music. However, Abraham still feels the need to control every aspect of Selena’s career including her song selections and wardrobe. He does not approve of some of the costumes she chooses to wear despite the fact they are modern. He still insists the band wear outdated clothes similar to what he wore when he was a musician in the ‘60s.

While he does eventually give in and let Selena and her siblings have their way, his obstinance creates a lot of tension between the family and creates some distance in their relationships. I imagine, to a degree, this was realistic, but I also have to assume Hollywood took some creative license and overdramatized it for the sake of the movie.

Edward James Olmos delivered a solid performance as usual. No stranger to playing fatherly, authority figures, he uses humor (often self-deprecating) to take the edge off his authoritarian roles. Besides this movie, this is evident in Stand and Deliver, Talent for the Game, and Mi Familia. I have yet to see one of his performances I have not liked.

Jennifer Lopez does an outstanding job in the title role. Even though I had nothing to compare her performance to, I found her portrayal of Selena convincing. She was only 28 at the time and this was her first leading role. At this point in her career, she had primarily been dancing in music videos, providing backing vocals on tracks and performing in supporting roles. This movie came out two years before her debut album.

The pacing was good until the end, which felt rushed. The climatic, tragic ending is not shown on screen, but ample reactionary scenes provide context. I think doing it that way worked and there was no need show the murder. That would have given the film a darker overtone and taken the focus away from the celebration of Selena’s life and music.

The casting seemed good. I looked at photos of the real people after the movie and compared it to the actors and they were pretty convincing overall. The cast consisted primarily (outside of Olmos) of unknowns who had some tv work, but no major movie credits.

Since this movie was made so soon after her passing, they were able to reuse costumes she wore and locations she had actually visited and it appeared more realistic. The timing was in part because, according to Wikipedia, so many people were publishing unauthorized books and films about Selena that the family decided they needed to tell their story as soon as possible in order to control the narrative. It says that they began work on the screenplay not long after her death. That must have been difficult for them.

After watching this movie, I listened to all of Selena’s albums and became a fan. Even if you have never heard of Selena, as I hadn’t, I would recommend giving this movie a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.

If you liked this movie, a series entitled “Selena: The Series” was released on Netflix in 2020. It goes more in depth in her story. Both this movie and the series were sanctioned by her father and he was also involved in the production of both. In the series, Selena is played by Christian Serratos.