|
***1/2 (out of ****) When we first meet them, the teenage protagonists of "Better Luck Tomorrow" are unable to appreciate anything intrinsically. Everything that could be potentially enjoyable or interesting has been co-opted by their overwhelming, omnipresent ambition to get into a good college. Their "apps" are like giant black rain clouds, ruining everything. For the sake of getting a good transcript they belong to every club they can find. They clean beaches, collect canned foods, sell candy bars, wash cars, and memorize one SAT word a day. They work menial jobs for money they don't need just so the words "Employee of the Month" can help thicken their college applications. Even church membership is only a means to an end. One boy shoots 250 free throws a day, not because he likes basketball anymore, but so he can break a record and write it on his application. During class, a girl writes "this is soooo boring" on a boy's notebook and he smiles in agreement. But in a brief, reflective moment, he can't seem to think of anything interesting he would rather be doing. In their gated neighborhoods and big houses, they go on and on about how great college will be and how much they hate their current lives. But what will be different once they've graduated into real life, what more will they have? When one of them imagines having a house all to himself, he loves the idea but can't think of what he would do with it. Despite endless college talk, only one boy is asked point blank what his major will be, and his answer is the vague, weak-willed syllable "bio." So when, at the much delayed ages of 16 and 17, these children discover the pleasure of things that have no business going on college transcripts, they become giddy, drunken, and reckless with joy. And dangerous. When the boys turn to crime--first cheat sheets, then petty theft, then drugs, then up from there--it is as if they are protected by a lead shield. Doing crimes that don't matter, that don't really gain them anything, that are merely tests for their wits, egos, and brains, and not college applications, is like a tremendous breath of fresh air. Like so many teenagers, they are simultaneously hyper-responsible and constantly fearful when it comes to their scholastic future, yet childishly invincible about everything else. The most striking scene in "Better Luck Tomorrow" is so short you might miss it. One of the boys accidentally breaks the CD player he won for selling the most candy bars. It's a cheap, no-name device, and he can buy three of them easily with his ill-gotten gains. But he is upset anyway. Why? Probably because the CD player is an intrinsic prize, an end to itself and not merely another step in an endless parade of delayed gratification toward abstract goals. It's a tribute to the actor who plays him (Jason J. Tobin) that the episode is as sad as it is. The core friend group of the movie consists of Ben (Parry Shen), Virgil (Jason J. Tobin), Han (Sung Kang), and Daric (Roger Fan), who have terrifically written and realized dynamics. Except for Daric, who is a new addition to the group, the other three convincingly share space and obscenities like they really have known each other since elementary school. Virgil rivals Bust-Ass from "All the Real Girls" as the most obnoxious movie character of 2003, who never knows when to shut up or settle down, and is the heel of every joke. Han is Virgil's cousin and chief tormentor, the cool one, the man of few words and a classic car. Daric is the alpha male, and perhaps the most dangerous, a boy they've all known vaguely from school, but only a recent friend. He is cocky, overbearing, and manipulative, yet he must be also completely likable, sitting as the president of every club in the school. Ben is our sotto voce narrator, who sometimes seems to have a conscience, but is essentially victim to the whims of his group. He is infatuated with Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung), who may represent the boys' lost conscience, or who may simply be too terrified of being captured, of "getting into trouble," to live beyond the boundaries established for her. Her performance is a delicate one, seemingly good-hearted and oblivious, yet she ends the movie with one of many suspicious expressions that remind us boys about the unfathomable depths of girlhood. Another tertiary character is Steve, played by familiar face John Cho, who was kind enough to immortalize the expression "MILF" in the original "American Pie." In a movie packed with affluence and privilege, he is even richer than everyone else, attends a private school, has a car and motorcycle, and is Stephanie's boyfriend. (Steve? Stephanie? Hmmm.) A mixture of staring self-confidence and low-voiced insecurity, he is even more ambiguous than Stephanie. When he observes Ben's infatuation with her, he encourages Ben to take her on a date. We're never sure why. We're never sure about a lot of things in "Better Luck Tomorrow." Virgil claims to have seen Stephanie in a porno but we're never sure. A comment is made that Daric lives by himself, without parents, but it's never followed up. Stephanie and Steve pop up to let Ben glimpse their romantic troubles but we never know the full story. Some viewers may mistake this for unfocused storytelling and murky motivations. I defend the movie, and not just because it has the kind of high-power visceral direction that keeps things moving too fast for us to notice. "Better Luck Tomorrow" is told from Ben's point-of-view, which sees much but understands little. Being so focused on scholastic pursuits, Ben simply lacks the facilities to comprehend a lot of what happens around him. I loved the way the world of "Better Luck Tomorrow" swirls around him and he doesn't notice. This is why Stephanie's final look is so loaded and intriguing, and why the uncertain expression on Ben's face suggests he may be thinking the same thing. Oh yeah, did I mention all the important characters are Asian-American? "Better Luck Tomorrow" stirred up some trouble during its very successful run at the Sundance Film Festival (it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Drama), and its director/co-writer Justin Lin was called upon more than once to come to its aid. Of race in movies, I will only say that it's a shame that when a white guy plays a role, he's just a guy. But if someone's part of a different ethnic group, he's often burdened with the unnecessary responsibility of representing that entire group, and his mere presence seems to demand that the story is required to be "ethnic." "Better Luck Tomorrow" is Lin's solo directorial debut (he co-directed "Shopping for Fangs"). Sadly, most of his work since then (including two "Fast and Furious" movies, "Annapolis," and episodes of "Community") hasn't looked interesting enough for me to bother. Only his comedy "Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee," about Asian actors struggling in Hollywood, has a place on my Netflix queue. With "Better Luck Tomorrow," Lin uses an aggressive mix of cinematic trickery and actor-oriented long-takes. The movie has its share of quick edits, sped-up motion, and self-conscious camera movements. But it also contains several three- and four-minute shots, in which the quietly-superb cast is allowed to do its thing uninterrupted. That "Better Luck Tomorrow" is so geared toward acting and writing may come as a surprise when we see the "MTV Productions" logo tacked onto the beginning. MTV Productions sure has a lot of things to be ashamed about--like, for instance, MTV--but, like its past Oscar-nominee "Election," "Better Luck Tomorrow" has a genuine feel to it, with children who go to school without looking like magazine models, who wear sloppy clothes, and who actually do homework. My only complaint about "Better Luck Tomorrow" is actually more of a half-complaint: does it really need the drugs and the guns? Certainly the movie as it stands is very, very good, and it handles these elements well. The movie's first act, before the boys get into serious crime, is its best, and the subsequent acts are thematically consistent with the first act's look at amoral ambition. But couldn't an equally good, if not better movie be made with the same actors playing virtually the same characters, without the elements which (I hope) are hyperbole? Even though there are no parents in "Better Luck Tomorrow," the movie could be a warning to soccer moms and other overbearing parents who raise their offspring in an atmosphere of future-oriented dread; who shuttle their children from school to baseball practice to music lessons and then home to bed without an instant to spare; who seek to rob their children of a childhood in the name of "doing what's best for them." There's an old adage that nothing is fun when you have to go to school for it, and certainly too much in "Better Luck Tomorrow" has been gobbled up by college applications. George Carlin once remarked that today's children need to be made to daydream for one hour a day, free from all other responsibilities. Maybe that's a good idea. Or maybe we would just form competitive daydream teams. Finished October 23, 2003 Copyright © 2011, 2003 by Peter Kovic (aka Friday + Saturday Night Movie Critic) Starring Parry Shen, Roger Fan, Jason J. Tobin, Karin Anna Cheung, John Cho, Sung Kang, Ryan Cadiz, and Jerry Mathers Directed by Justin Lin + written by Lin, Ernesto Foronda, and Fabian Marquez 2002 (wide release 2003) R 98 min |
|
|
All content © Copyright 2007 - 2011 Insert Logo Productions
|