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Plot

Emilio is a normal teenager, who somehow finds himself being sent to the principal's office every other week. He has a crush on a girl named Jacklynne, the most popular girl in school, so he decides to run for Student Council President in order to impress her. After announcing his candidacy, Emilio discovers, to his horror, that Jacklynne herself will be his opponent. Emotions fly high as campaign fever intensifies. After a poignant domino match, Emilio reasons that by sacrificing himself and losing the election, he would be able to win over her heart. Emilio devises a risky plan to rig the election in her favor, which includes sneaking into the school's computer lab to change the voting results, and simulating an electrical failure to divert potential suspicion. The plan succeeds, and an encounter with the school's tyrannical principal is narrowly avoided. Immediately after changing the voting results, Emilio confronts Jacklynne and confesses his love for her, but she brushes past his confession, showing that she has no affection for him and rendering his efforts for naught. In the final scene of the film, set in the midst of summer, it is revealed that although Emilio's life has not changed significantly, he has fallen in love with María Eugenia, a friend who had had a crush on Emilio since several months prior.

Cast

Production

First-time directors, Jaime and Tony Vallés, had some experience working in theater. However, they had never made a movie before. They studied filmmaking through books and the Internet

To make the film, they approached members of their own family, among them the Puerto Rican actress, Marian Pabón, and Mario Pabón. Most of the cast were inexperienced actors taken directly from school, in order to give a feeling of naturalness and spontaneity to the film.

The auditions for the teenage cast were held in three private schools in San Juan, Puerto Rico:

Some of the novice actors, like Ricardo Arias, had to be persuaded by the directors. The directors were forced to fill the role of María Eugenia with a replacement, Irene Lucio.

To minimize expenses, all of the cast had to provide their own wardrobe, except for the school uniform shirts.

Reviews

Despite being a low-budget film, it has received critical praise, including Ronnie Scheib from Variety magazine, and Joe Baltake, of the Philadelphia Film Festival, who compared it with Mean Girls and Clueless.

Awards