How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer

Inexplicably unreleased for three years, this tale of multigenerational longing in an Arizona Latino-American family offers nothing radically new, but first-time feature director Riedel gives the proceedings a markedly frank and assured treatment. Mom (Peña) is divorced and lonely; daughter (Ferrera) debates losing it with a caddish mechanic; and grandma (Gallardo) falls for the man giving her driving lessons. Maintaining a leisurely pace that never once seems like an affectation, the movie emerges as less a ya-ya sisterhood pep rally than an endearing community portrait; it has the feel of a story carefully observed rather than dramatized. The performances—apart from Bauer’s leathery work as the town womanizer—are naturalistic and effective.