Ariela (Naian González Norvind, who shares screenwriting credit with director Isaac Cherem) is a 25-year-old woman eking out a living as an artist in Mexico City. A child of divorce, she lives under her mother Estrella’s (Carolina Politi) roof. As the days pass, Ariela is feeling mounting pressure from all sides to find the right mensch with whom to settle down. (Her bubbie was a bride at 15 and the mother of three at 18; there’s this familial obligation in need of honoring!) Any Jew who has ever partaken in an interfaith romance will find in Leona some of the freshest, most authentic first-date dialogue-exchanges ever committed to film. Over drinks, Ariela mentions to her gentile companion that members of the community helped boost her career. Iván (Christian Vazquez) interprets this to mean the Jewish community, not the community of professional muralists to which Ariela belongs. Ashamed of her itinerant daughter’s decision to date outside the faith, mom kicks Ariela to the curb. Upon learning of the boy’s Mexican heritage, her father, never at a loss for witty repartee, mutters, “At least he’s not named Jesús.” (No, but the actor who plays him is named Christian.) A request to stay at her father’s place is met with a peck on the cheek followed by a, “No, sweetheart.” With no place to go, she and Iván decide to move in together. The results? Disastrous! We open and close with head-to-toe shots of two naked women: fade-in on a young bride-to-be about to take a ritualistic plunge in the mikvah, fade-out on our heroine, Leona (Spanish for lioness), alone and triumphant in her apartment. What comes between is the stuff a rejoicing romantic comedy is made of. Now streaming at the Digital Gym Virtual Cinema. (2018) — Scott Marks
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