"Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It" -- Movie Review

 

This week, Film At Lincoln Center arranged a special screening of the new documentary, “Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It”, about the life of actress-singer-dancer Rita Moreno.  

Story

At nearly 90, Rita Moreno has left quite a legacy in the world of show business.  She is one of the few people in the entertainment industry who can brag of possessing the much-envied “quadruple crown” of awards known better as an EGOT (i.e. -- winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award).  While this is impressive for anyone, it is particularly so when you consider the extremely humble beginnings from which she came; there is almost nothing in her background that would suggest that such a bright future was any kind of a certainty.  

Born in Puerto Rico, Moreno and her younger brother were mainly raised by their mother following a divorce; while living with her maternal grandfather at this point, her mother decided that in order for them to have a better life, they needed to move to New York City.  So, the mother accompanied her daughter on a ship to Manhattan -- but left the son behind.  Moreno never saw her younger brother after that.  Moreno was bitten by the entertainment bug early on; when an associate of Louis B. Mayer helped to arrange a meeting with him, she was immediately signed to a contract with his studio because she looked like a Hispanic version of Elizabeth Taylor.    

With her first name now changed from Rosalita to Rita, Moreno embarked on a career in show business.  After small parts in motion pictures both major and minor, her big break came in “West Side Story”, for which she won an Academy Award.  After an on-again-off-again romance with Marlon Brando, she later settled down and married a physician; they were together for many years and had a daughter.  Following her success in “West Side Story”, Moreno didn’t work on a movie again for a couple of years because she kept getting typecast.  Eventually, she would find success on television (“The Electric Company”) and on Broadway, in Terrance McNally’s play, “The Ritz”. 

Review

If you are familiar with the work of Rita Moreno but not necessarily an avid fan, then you will likely learn quite a bit about her life in "Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It".  This documentary contains many surprises -- and not all of them good ones.  The audience is presented with as close as we might possibly get to the unvarnished truth about this woman.  That said, the interviewees in this movie are predictably glowing in their characterization of Moreno; not one of them is even remotely critical.  Despite Moreno’s attempts to come across as forthcoming, it would seem that the other participants thought this was supposed to be a hagiography.  

One of the more unusual techniques the director used was introducing animation in portions of her documentary.  Specifically, there are scenes when Moreno appears as a paper doll -- especially when referencing her youth -- where the doll gets dressed in various outfits.  Its use can be somewhat distracting although this was obviously attempted as something of an analogy; the purpose behind this is to show Moreno as being fragile and dressed up to be what other people perceived her to be, as opposed to who she really was.  It would seem that other photographs and movie clips made this point quite well and the cringeworthy paper doll stunt was a bit too on-the-nose.        

Following the screening, there was an interview with the director of the documentary, Mariem Pérez Riera.  While most of her work is done in Puerto Rico, her son plays Moreno’s grandson in the Netflix series, “One Day At A Time”.  Through that connection, she was able to get Moreno to consent to participating in the documentary.  It was her intention to show Moreno as she truly is instead of her “glamorous” side; she wanted the audience to see the real person when not on screen or stage.  As a result, Moreno did not wear a wig or makeup during the interview.  In total, 80 hours of footage were shot over a one year period -- of which, only an hour and a half made it into the final cut.