Music’s School of Hard Knocks produces another alumna in “Filly Brown,” a gritty and well-acted  Latin hip hop variation of a long reliable formula.
Gina Rodriguez delivers a breakout performance in the title role, a tough, two-fisted rapper named Majo whose two goals in life intersect — to become a star and make enough money to get her mom (the late Jenni Rivera) out of prison.
When Mom couples another plea for help with some scribbled down rhymes, the “lady on the mike,” vows to make her move. She finds herself a DJ (Braxton Millz) who can mix some promising melodies (” a mix that drips”) and sets her eye on catching the attention of record label owner Big Cee (Noel Gugliemi).
“He liked what I spit,” she enthuses. Then come the compromises — the need to “sex it up” and “merch it up.” And then come the family complications, fresh barriers to her success and her credibility.
What’s truly novel here is the world captured by writer-director Yousef Delara and his co-director Michael D. Olmos. It’s insular and self-sustaining. Need cash? First ask Uncle Mani (Emilio Rivera), who makes a mint with his tattoo business. Need exposure? Go on Khool-Aid”s web radio show.
Rodriguez gives a fierceness to this character that makes it only natural for the guys she’s confronting to try and calm her down with “Relax DUDE.” She’s comfortable with the slang and charismatic at the mike.
A couple of veterans of the Latin film scene lend “Filly Brown” some gravitas. Edward James Olmos is the lawyer who sees more to Majo’s mom than she’ll let herself see. And Lou Diamond Phillips plays the hard-working contractor father who is dealing with his own “stay true to yourself” issues when his work is threatened by white realtors who don’t like seeing tattoo-covered crews working on their properties.
There’s nothing much new here, but the performances and the milieu make “Filly Brown” an entertaining, honorable installment in a story that is the American Dream incarnate, and has been ever since the first wannabe showed up on Tin Pan Alley at the beginning of the last century.

MPAA Rating:R for language, some drug use and violence
Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jenni Rivera, Edward James Olmos
Credits: Directed by Yousef Delara and Michael D. Olmos, written by Yousef Delara . A Pantelion release.
Running time: 1:38