050 Selena (1997)

Retro Grade Podcast

“IT’S HARD BEING MEXICAN-AMERICAN.“

On this episode of Retro Grade Podcast, we go back to a movie that meant more to each of us than we realized. We take on 1997’s Selena, directed by Gregory Nava, starring Jennifer Lopez and Edward James Olmos. While both being 90’s babies and both having Hispanic heritage, Selena’s music was in our ears and hearts during our formative years. To this day, hearing her music takes us on an emotional journey that is shared by millions of others. We were both huge fans of the movie as children, but after falling in love with film and going to a university to study the craft of filmmaking, we haven’t watched Selena since. So now in making this episode we are tasked to ask…how good is Selena the movie really?

We talk about the objectively amazing performances given by the principal cast. Edward James Olmos as the Quintanilla patriarch does an amazing job playing an over protective father, who despite all his faults always comes from a place of love. John Seda playing Selena’s future husband gives a performance that feels so subtle and authentic, it made both of us think to ourselves “I know this guy!“ And of course, there is no denying the career-launching portrayal of Selena from Jennifer Lopez. She may not have looked like Selena, she may not have had the Texan accent like Selena, she didn’t even sing like Selena (the singing scenes were all dubbed with Selena’s actual voice) but she brought Selena back to life in a way that brought the real Quintanilla’s to tears. Anyone who says J. Lo can’t act has clearly never seen this movie.

There are somethings we get into about how maybe the movie hasn’t aged as well. Some of them not being faults of the movie itself, but perhaps the music biopic genre itself. Some being reminders of how films in the 90’s were made. But one of them being a part of the Selena story itself. How do you tell the story without the abrupt and tragic end, that to this day still breaks our hearts?

We get into some of the history of the real life Selena, and how the film compares. We provide context to show our listeners how much people cared about Selena, and how some people really didn’t care about at all, and that despite all of the barriers in front of her and her untimely death in 1995, she remains as a beacon of hope for so many, immortalized in her music and the film that has just turned 25 years old.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we had making it!

Music is from Triune Digital and audio clips pulled from movies we will be reviewing in other episodes.

Artwork by @jannelle_o