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directed by Laura Wall-Mansfield
by Walter Chaw A low-aspiring, semi-inspiring documentary about nine Latino teens vowing not to become a racial stereotype of underachievement, crime, and early dropout-ism, the Denver-based Sweet Ambition examines the effect of smaller class sizes on future success. With a soundtrack cribbing tracks from sources as varied as local Latino rap to Antonio Banderas, Willie Nelson, Santana, and loads of Ani DiFranco, the production looks and feels slick, but interviews with the youths (some wayward, some twice-mothers at the age of 16) are naïve and often redundant. Over it all hangs the spectre of "So what?" It's nice to hear these disadvantaged youngsters climb up on the "by the shoestrings" soapbox after circumstance and inexperience have laid them low, but the overriding message of "when life gives you lemons…" invariably grates. Media and popular cynicism have made the mean streets so familiar that such a project as Sweet Ambition has the difficult responsibility one of presenting either new perspectives or old truisms in a new light. Too soon for its end-cards to mean very much, there is perhaps the possibility for a 42 Up-type situation wherein we catch up with these kids (and their kids) in a decade or so; for now, Sweet Ambition is just a community activism stump that should really be more careful about using unlicensed music.
