Bad Hair

This film is excellent. The acting, the story telling, and the productions values are all very high. I think a previous reviewer had the impression that the film should address more head on the subject of growing up black. But I can tell you as someone who is from Venezuela and now lives in the US, that's not a subject that it's discussed much in Venezuela. So I believe you're coming at it from your experience of growing up in the US. I bet if you were to ask the little boy in the film if he considers himself black, he would say no. The way this film tackles ethnicity and socioeconomic disparities is very subtle and that's why I believe it's so effective. Venezuela is a country obsessed with beauty pageants, and as many we have accepted that "straight hair" is the definition of beauty. I myself grew up believing I had "Pelo Malo." I now of course love my hair just the way it is. That was a wonderful tool the filmmaker chose to illustrate a symbol of not belonging. For me this film is mostly an exploration of motherhood. Mothers are supposed to be perfect, but how can you be when you're so focused on just surviving? I never once doubted that in the film the mother deeply loves her children, she's just making the choices she believes she has to make in her situation, even though sometimes those choices were plainly wrong.