Bx3M, directed by Judith Escalona, demonstrates the worldwide struggles that working-class adolescents face by showing transformative moments in the lives of three urban Nuyorican teenagers. Each of the protagonists has a major issue to deal with: Maria is blind to her beloved Michael’s negative traits, Mona is struggling with identity issues, Michael is drowning in a life-long trauma.
Maria’s drama unfolds as her protective and strict father voices concern over Michael whom he knows is a druggy and hangs with the wrong crowd. Maria is immersed in love so passionate that she ignores and refuses to see the most obvious hints that easily point to Michael’s self-destructive life. But she manages to open her eyes in the end and moves on, heartbroken. In Mona, the second part of Bx3M, Maria’s classmate is confused if she is lesbian or straight and becomes distraught when her mother, apparently so supportive, rejects her as a lesbian. Her issue, unlike Maria’s, remains unsolved, but through her half-heartedness towards her potential boyfriend and her eventual refusal of him, we can see that she has been deceiving herself. In the third part, Michael’s extreme decision will spark debate among audiences about its righteousness. Michael is given a chance to deal with his life-long trauma; his mother’s unavenged killing has been haunting him for all his life and he feels as if all the responsibility is on his shoulders. In an attempt to differentiate himself from the father he saw as weak, he shoots the local drug dealer who killed his best friend. In this way, Michael acts out in the present what his father should have done in the past. Tragically, his anger blurs his vision and makes him in one sense no better than his mother’s killer.
What the three characters have gone through is universal and is sure to play out repeatedly in the future. It was easiest for me, a New Yorker, to sympathize with Mona and her predicament. The secondary characters, especially Mona’s bold girlfriend, enhanced the movie. BX3M will soon be available for download and on DVD. Hopefully, there will be additional public screenings. It is a thoroughly engaging and moving film. I look forward to Judith Escalona’s next film.
