How far would you go to preserve a favorite childhood memory? In ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, director Arthur Bradford chronicles the struggles to preserve a beloved Colorado landmark, no matter how fraught the process may be. Though the documentary is as slight as you might expect when dealing with such subject matter, it gets by thanks to its main characters, the titular Denver-based Mexican restaurant, and its new owners, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

You don’t have to be a fan of Parker and Stone’s South Park, or have a fond remembrance of the season 7 episode where the characters try to make it to Casa Bonita, to appreciate what the “Disneyland of Mexican Restaurants” means to the Denver community. The nostalgia is baked in when we first meet Parker and Stone, as they discuss their childhood memories of visiting, and being continually awed by the experience, in spite of it smelling like “chlorine and beans”, as Parker puts it when setting foot in the restaurant in present-day.

Unfortunately, like many small businesses and restaurants, the Denver location permanently closed because of the Covid pandemic. But Parker and Stone refused to let the restaurant die, and with it, any potential for future generations to experience what they had. So they stepped in and saved the location from bankruptcy, without realizing just how difficult it would be to bring Casa Bonita back to life. For most of its runtime, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! chronicles the various setbacks, and financial hits, that Parker and Stone face to restore the landmark into the new generation, without losing what made it so special to begin with. It’s mostly standard-issue fixer-upper material that wouldn’t feel out of place in Kitchen Nightmares (which Parker references at one point) or most HGTV programs.

What ultimately elevates ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! above the mundane is Parker and Stone’s charisma and dedication. They never stop cracking jokes or making light of any given situation, even when they learn the cost of renovation, which they initially believed to be around $6 million, has ballooned to almost $30 million. At nearly every turn, there’s new information about the dire state of Casa Bonita when they purchased it, and how death or injury was likely just around the corner if the restaurant continued on without them. Yet Parker and Stone soldier on, unfazed in their belief that the restaurant can be a worthwhile experience for everyone that knew and loved Casa Bonita.

At the end of the day, there isn’t much thematically to hang your hat on with ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, but it remains an enjoyable time. There’s some material about preserving childhood memories while making sure the newer generations have something special. Parker has a poignant realization towards the end of the film, where he realizes, after its reopening, that Casa Bonita is no longer for him. It’s an emotional response, and one he wasn’t expecting, but it arrives in the closing minutes without much more introspection. If the end goal of ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! is to spotlight the saving of a beloved local institution because of a few local celebrities, the film is a success. If its goal is anything more than that, it’s mostly just empty calories.

¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! will be in select theaters beginning September 13, and will be available to stream on Paramount+ later this fall.

OSCAR POTENTIAL:

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