Bellyfruit

An American-indie-dramatized warning about the unpleasantnesses connected with teenage pregnancy, Kerri Lee Green's film cuts among three cautionary tales of young girls in LA. Shanika (Tamar LaSean Bass) is an African-American girl living in a group house who falls hard for a 28-year-old neighborhood stud with a limo and an apartment; he, of course, denies all connection when she reports that she's with child. The Hispanic Arabely (Tonatzin Mondragon) leaves her parents' home to have her baby with her immature, barely employable teen boyfriend. Christine (Kelly Vint), who's tired of her young and tattoo'd mother's obsessive infidelities, seeks solace with the guys at school and, with no idea who the father is, gives birth to a little girl. Lots of inexperienced actors are used quite functionally in this sincere movie, but all three tales are predictable, and predictably downers. The future of Bellyfruit after the Boston Film Festival is high-school civics classes and social-worker discussions. Screens at the Copley Place Sunday, September 19 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.

-- Gerald Peary

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Film Festival Feature Films

| Keepers of the Frame | The Runner | The Carriers Are Waiting | Tumbleweeds | Deterrance | The War Zone | Happy, Texas | Joe the King | The Legend of 1900 | Best Laid Plans | Original Diner Guys | The Glass Jar | Rose's | Wirey Spindell | Starry Night | Bellyfruit |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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