SYNOPSIS

Life in Portales, New Mexico isn’t easy for high school bad girl Lily (Laura Lee Bahr, who also wrote the screenplay). Weekends mean endless cruising until the cough syrup kicks in. The boy she loves won’t commit, she’s surrounded by strident born-again Christians, and her budding sexuality is starting to earn her a reputation.

To top it off, while others in her Sunday school class report visions of Jesus as Ronald Reagan or Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily’s personal savior appears to her as a gangly, Spanish-speaking migrant worker. Oh well, she figures, any boyfriend in a pinch.

By turns wistful, poignant and offbeat, the debut feature from director Morgan Nichols ultimately captures the confusion of adolescence with a rare, touching grace.

–Susanna Ulrich, Los Angeles Film Festival