Most people know the end of the story of Selena Quintanilla, the pop star who brought the tejano music to mainstream before she was tragically murdered at the age of 23. The story of her short life and horrible death has been recounted over and over again, most famous in the movie “Selena” from 1997 With Jennifer Lopez in the lead role And most recently in Brett panned 2020 Netflix series “Selena: The Series.”
“Selena and Dinos“The new documentary from Isabel Castro, with premiere at SundanceA rare feat. By the end of filmI sobbed. I knew what was coming, and I was still ruined.
Castro achieves this by focusing primarily on Selena’s life, rather than the sensational way she died. “Selena y los dinos” – also produced by Selena’s brother and sister – is a tribute and an examination of the music she did. Anchored by personal archive material, “Selena y los dinos” is a picture of Selena’s vibrantness as well as her canni. It is a powerful reminder of both what her loss means and why her work is still so important.
“Selena y los dinos” tells Selena’s story from the start. Her father Abraham was a musician who sang with the original band Los Dinos. Absent from his young family’s life, he gave up his dreams of star status to work at Dow Chemical in Lake Jackson, Texas. But when he realized that his young daughter had a powerful voice and a tendency to sing, he saw a business opportunity. He recruited his son AB to play bass and his daughter Suzette to the drum. He baptized the band after his former group.
In addition to using materials that come from Quintanilla’s personal camcorders, Castro Abraham, AB, Suzette and Marcella, their mother, allow interviews. She uses these wisely. The only talking heads in the film are people who are directly involved in Los Dinos, which means that everyone who speaks had a first -hand understanding of how the music developed.
For how full of love as the movie is, Castro makes it clear that Abraham saw this as an opportunity to make money and eventually Selena did it. AB, who ended by writing some of Selena’s biggest hits, does not hide part of the contempt in his voice when discussing his father’s insatiable driving force. On top of that, there is a heartbreaking moment thanks to the archive where Selena discusses how she does not have so many friends, after getting rid of the school to focus on the job.
And yet Abraham’s financial knowledge also led to Tejano music, which they eventually mixed with Cumbia to create their unique sound. Castro is skillfully aware of the complicated space that Selena occupied, and weaves a story of assimilation to several cultures.
Although Selena is best known for bringing Spanish -speaking music to a wide audience – and was on the verge of becoming a big crossover artist when she died – she was not originally Spanish speaking. You see her fight in early interviews with Spanish -speaking hosts, and a crucial concert in Mexico goes wrong when the audience seems to feel that she cannot joke with them in their language. For white American listeners, Selena was a foreigner. For those in Mexico, she was an outsider.
You see when Selena herself realizes how she has to shape herself for the sake of success. She learns Spanish so that she can stay in any language. Interested in fashion design she shapes her own iconic look – the glittering bras and pants with high waist.
All the time she remains a remarkably young person. It is very obvious in the grainy video showing how she buses with Suzette and the members of the band – of which one, Chris Pérez, would marry after first keeping their relationship secret for her father. The pictures of Selena outside the public’s eyes – giggling, sloppy, sometimes annoyed – are those who get stuck in you, the memory of a girl who never really got a childhood or an adult age.
She is always magnetic, regardless of context, but it is wild to see her turning when she goes up on stage into a unstoppable force of charisma, whether she dances, her legs move a mile a minute, or if she takes up a guy on stage to unmask him under “¿Qué creías?”
As the film approaches the end of Selena’s life, you realize that time is starting to end for Castro to get into the whole drama around her death. But then it is almost a relief when you understand that Castro will not spend the time recovering it. The name “Yolanda” – a reference to Yolanda Saldívar, the murder of the fans – is pronounced only once, in passing. It is a choice that tears the killer of any power, leaving Selena responsible for her story.
What linger is the complete grief that this woman, who broke so much land and was set to break so much more, is no longer present. In the faces of her family members and her bandmates you can see how raw their grief is still. But “Selena y los dinos” is not just a tribute, it is a living argument for Selena’s humanity, as well as her status as legend.
Rating: B+
“Selena y los dinos” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2025. It is currently seeking distribution in the United States.
Want to keep you up to date on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our foremost film critic and manager Reviews The editor gathers the best new reviews and streaming elections together with some exclusive thoughts – all only available to subscribers.
