Benjamin Bratt & Jeremy Ray Valdez in the movie La Mission

Most films flying under the big-budget radar aren't released; it's more like they escape for a few days and then disappear.

"La Mission" is a prime example of the struggles an American indie must wage. It also happens to be a satisfying and movingly acted story.

Shot two years ago by writer-director Peter Bratt, the film stars Bratt's brother, Benjamin, as Che Rivera, a Bay Area bus driver who's an ex-con, a recovering alcoholic, a longtime widower and a low rider fanatic.

Che's son (Jeremy Ray Valdez) is gay, still in the closet and lying about his whereabouts to his fond but supremely macho father. ("Another study group?" Che asks him at one point, suspiciously.) "La Mission" has familiar, even predictable, contours on the page, but moment to moment it's alive with feeling and raw emotion.

We know Che will eventually come around, but how he gets there holds some surprises. We know he and his neighbor (the wonderful Erika Alexander) will get together, after initial wariness and hostilities, and we know that Che's rejection of his son will cause a rift. But the difficulties encountered by these characters aren't easy to conquer.

Director Bratt has made a modest valentine to the Mission District of San Francisco, an ode to low rider culture and tradition and, thanks to his actor brother, he has a charismatic center holding it all together. Bratt (Benjamin, that is) is used to making on-the-nose dialogue ("You're dead to me!") as convincing as possible, having delivered plenty of it on TV and in the movies by now. He's clearly jazzed, however, at digging into this milieu, these trappings and familial clashes.

"La Mission" is workmanlike as cinema but persuasive as atmosphere and, at its truest, drama. I'm glad it has escaped into theaters this weekend.

 

MPAA rating: R (for language, some violence and sexual content).

Running time: 1:57.

Cast: Benjamin Bratt (Che Rivera); Jeremy Ray Valdez (Jesse); Erika Alexander (Lena).

Credits: Written and directed by Peter Bratt; produced by Peter Bratt, Benjamin Bratt and Alpita Patel. A Global Cinema release.

La Mission Movie Review - Benjamin Bratt & Jeremy Ray Valdez