Cinephile № 858 “Yellow Rose”

Recommendation: 3/5 Stars, STREAM

Plot: “A Filipina teen from a small Texas town fights to pursue her dreams as a country music performer while having to decide between staying with her family or leaving the only home she has known.” -IMDB

Review: On the other side of xenophobia, racism, and cultural misunderstanding, are human beings pursuing the American dream in their own way. They may be found in meatpacking plants, in the back of your favorite restaurant, or cleaning your hotel room. “Yellow Rose” focuses on a Filipina teen named Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada) in a small Texas town who has a deep love for country music and dreams of one day performing her own original songs. She and her mother are also here illegally. When Rose decides to rebel against her mother’s wishes by sneaking off to Austin with a boy for a concert, she narrowly misses Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents taking her mother into custody. This life-altering act launches a search for Rose’s voice and a nearly impossible search for a home.

The only negative thing I can say about this film is that, at times, the acting can be uneven. Beyond that, it is powerful. As we watch Rose find a safe space to live in the back of the concert hall where she found herself on the night her mother was taken, we see a young woman beginning to wrestle with the push and pull between…