This review was written for the festival screening of "Better Luck Tomorrow".
PARK CITY -- Most people have a skeleton in their closet, but very few have one in their back yard, especially as a teen. A scorching smear of high school life, prismed darkly through Asian-American eyes in Orange County, Calif., "Better Luck Tomorrow" is one of the hottest, most stylish and smartly twisted films to play at Sundance in years.
Asian-American kids are always the silent minority -- and, in this case, four disaffected teen-age dudes do a hostile takedown of their Orange County high school and community. A dramatic in-your-face slam to the stereotypical image of the studious, passive Asian-American student, these guys are a digital-age Billionaire Boys Club/Loeb and Leopold. With a jaunty "Less Than Zero"-type glaze of affluent adolescent life, "Better Luck" provides both a searing satire of modern suburbia and provocative insight into the malignant maturation of generally well-meaning and privileged kids.
Subversively charming, this gang of four operates largely unchallenged because they excel: At their core is Ben Parry Shen), an Ivy League candidate who learns a new word a day, plans to score 1,600 on his SATs and volunteers for every club and do-gooder organization. In addition, through compulsive free-throw practice, he manages to make the basketball team and becomes known, much to his surprise and displeasure, as the team's token Asian-American.
Ben's cohorts are a scruffy bunch, including the smoothly political Daric (Roger Fan), the trigger-happy Virgil (Jason Tobin) and the laconic Han (Sung Kang). There's also the rich kid, Steve John Cho), whose insouciant style and hard-ass manner, of course, manage to snare pretty cheerleader Stephanie Karin Anna Cheung). From scamming, trashing and drugging to bigger and uglier things, The Four Lads soon find themselves in way over their heads.
At its most high-spirited, "Better Luck" is anarchically fun as the four guys trounce the school's convention and, in the process, garner an outlandish reputation -- as members of the Chinese Mafia. But through the touchstone character of Ben, we're increasingly unsettled by the out-of-control character and moral turpitude of their high jinks.
Ripped with a very unsettling ending, "Better Luck" will unnerve many. But its story progression is consistent with its hard-edged look at modern society, family and morals.
Filmmaker Justin Lin's expressive storytelling fits his darkly ironic theme, and the performances are nicely fleshed-out and edgy. As high-achiever Ben, Shen shows the torment of a guy with a lot of smarts but not many values. Adding flavor and craziness is Tobin as Virgil, while Fan is aptly slick as the manipulative Daric. Cheung's saucy, effervescent turn as the fetching cheerleader also rubs smartly against the grain of expectation.
Technical credits are scorchingly good, especially cinematographer Patrice Lucien Cochet's deadly satirical compositions and music supervisor Ernesto M. Foronda's searingly hormonal selections.
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW
Cinetic Media
Producers: Julie Asato, Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin
Director-editor: Justin Lin
Screenwriters: Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez
Executive producers: Gustavo Spoliansky,
Michael Manshel
Associate producers: Steve Herr, Sung Kang
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Casting: Donna Tina Charles
Music supervisor: Ernesto M. Foronda
Sound mixer: Curtis X. Choy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ben: Parry Shen
Virgil: Jason Tobin
Han: Sung Kang
Daric: Roger Fan
Steve: John Cho
Stephanie: Karin Anna Cheung
Biology teacher: Jerry Mathers
Basketball coach: Kenwood Jung
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Most people have a skeleton in their closet, but very few have one in their back yard, especially as a teen. A scorching smear of high school life, prismed darkly through Asian-American eyes in Orange County, Calif., "Better Luck Tomorrow" is one of the hottest, most stylish and smartly twisted films to play at Sundance in years.
Asian-American kids are always the silent minority -- and, in this case, four disaffected teen-age dudes do a hostile takedown of their Orange County high school and community. A dramatic in-your-face slam to the stereotypical image of the studious, passive Asian-American student, these guys are a digital-age Billionaire Boys Club/Loeb and Leopold. With a jaunty "Less Than Zero"-type glaze of affluent adolescent life, "Better Luck" provides both a searing satire of modern suburbia and provocative insight into the malignant maturation of generally well-meaning and privileged kids.
Subversively charming, this gang of four operates largely unchallenged because they excel: At their core is Ben Parry Shen), an Ivy League candidate who learns a new word a day, plans to score 1,600 on his SATs and volunteers for every club and do-gooder organization. In addition, through compulsive free-throw practice, he manages to make the basketball team and becomes known, much to his surprise and displeasure, as the team's token Asian-American.
Ben's cohorts are a scruffy bunch, including the smoothly political Daric (Roger Fan), the trigger-happy Virgil (Jason Tobin) and the laconic Han (Sung Kang). There's also the rich kid, Steve John Cho), whose insouciant style and hard-ass manner, of course, manage to snare pretty cheerleader Stephanie Karin Anna Cheung). From scamming, trashing and drugging to bigger and uglier things, The Four Lads soon find themselves in way over their heads.
At its most high-spirited, "Better Luck" is anarchically fun as the four guys trounce the school's convention and, in the process, garner an outlandish reputation -- as members of the Chinese Mafia. But through the touchstone character of Ben, we're increasingly unsettled by the out-of-control character and moral turpitude of their high jinks.
Ripped with a very unsettling ending, "Better Luck" will unnerve many. But its story progression is consistent with its hard-edged look at modern society, family and morals.
Filmmaker Justin Lin's expressive storytelling fits his darkly ironic theme, and the performances are nicely fleshed-out and edgy. As high-achiever Ben, Shen shows the torment of a guy with a lot of smarts but not many values. Adding flavor and craziness is Tobin as Virgil, while Fan is aptly slick as the manipulative Daric. Cheung's saucy, effervescent turn as the fetching cheerleader also rubs smartly against the grain of expectation.
Technical credits are scorchingly good, especially cinematographer Patrice Lucien Cochet's deadly satirical compositions and music supervisor Ernesto M. Foronda's searingly hormonal selections.
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW
Cinetic Media
Producers: Julie Asato, Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin
Director-editor: Justin Lin
Screenwriters: Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez
Executive producers: Gustavo Spoliansky,
Michael Manshel
Associate producers: Steve Herr, Sung Kang
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Casting: Donna Tina Charles
Music supervisor: Ernesto M. Foronda
Sound mixer: Curtis X. Choy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ben: Parry Shen
Virgil: Jason Tobin
Han: Sung Kang
Daric: Roger Fan
Steve: John Cho
Stephanie: Karin Anna Cheung
Biology teacher: Jerry Mathers
Basketball coach: Kenwood Jung
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 4/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Most people have a skeleton in their closet, but very few have one in their back yard, especially as a teen. A scorching smear of high school life, prismed darkly through Asian-American eyes in Orange County, Calif., "Better Luck Tomorrow" is one of the hottest, most stylish and smartly twisted films to play at Sundance in years.
Asian-American kids are always the silent minority -- and, in this case, four disaffected teen-age dudes do a hostile takedown of their Orange County high school and community. A dramatic in-your-face slam to the stereotypical image of the studious, passive Asian-American student, these guys are a digital-age Billionaire Boys Club/Loeb and Leopold. With a jaunty "Less Than Zero"-type glaze of affluent adolescent life, "Better Luck" provides both a searing satire of modern suburbia and provocative insight into the malignant maturation of generally well-meaning and privileged kids.
Subversively charming, this gang of four operates largely unchallenged because they excel: At their core is Ben Parry Shen), an Ivy League candidate who learns a new word a day, plans to score 1,600 on his SATs and volunteers for every club and do-gooder organization. In addition, through compulsive free-throw practice, he manages to make the basketball team and becomes known, much to his surprise and displeasure, as the team's token Asian-American.
Ben's cohorts are a scruffy bunch, including the smoothly political Daric (Roger Fan), the trigger-happy Virgil (Jason Tobin) and the laconic Han (Sung Kang). There's also the rich kid, Steve John Cho), whose insouciant style and hard-ass manner, of course, manage to snare pretty cheerleader Stephanie Karin Anna Cheung). From scamming, trashing and drugging to bigger and uglier things, The Four Lads soon find themselves in way over their heads.
At its most high-spirited, "Better Luck" is anarchically fun as the four guys trounce the school's convention and, in the process, garner an outlandish reputation -- as members of the Chinese Mafia. But through the touchstone character of Ben, we're increasingly unsettled by the out-of-control character and moral turpitude of their high jinks.
Ripped with a very unsettling ending, "Better Luck" will unnerve many. But its story progression is consistent with its hard-edged look at modern society, family and morals.
Filmmaker Justin Lin's expressive storytelling fits his darkly ironic theme, and the performances are nicely fleshed-out and edgy. As high-achiever Ben, Shen shows the torment of a guy with a lot of smarts but not many values. Adding flavor and craziness is Tobin as Virgil, while Fan is aptly slick as the manipulative Daric. Cheung's saucy, effervescent turn as the fetching cheerleader also rubs smartly against the grain of expectation.
Technical credits are scorchingly good, especially cinematographer Patrice Lucien Cochet's deadly satirical compositions and music supervisor Ernesto M. Foronda's searingly hormonal selections.
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW
Cinetic Media
Producers: Julie Asato, Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin
Director-editor: Justin Lin
Screenwriters: Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez
Executive producers: Gustavo Spoliansky,
Michael Manshel
Associate producers: Steve Herr, Sung Kang
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Casting: Donna Tina Charles
Music supervisor: Ernesto M. Foronda
Sound mixer: Curtis X. Choy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ben: Parry Shen
Virgil: Jason Tobin
Han: Sung Kang
Daric: Roger Fan
Steve: John Cho
Stephanie: Karin Anna Cheung
Biology teacher: Jerry Mathers
Basketball coach: Kenwood Jung
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Asian-American kids are always the silent minority -- and, in this case, four disaffected teen-age dudes do a hostile takedown of their Orange County high school and community. A dramatic in-your-face slam to the stereotypical image of the studious, passive Asian-American student, these guys are a digital-age Billionaire Boys Club/Loeb and Leopold. With a jaunty "Less Than Zero"-type glaze of affluent adolescent life, "Better Luck" provides both a searing satire of modern suburbia and provocative insight into the malignant maturation of generally well-meaning and privileged kids.
Subversively charming, this gang of four operates largely unchallenged because they excel: At their core is Ben Parry Shen), an Ivy League candidate who learns a new word a day, plans to score 1,600 on his SATs and volunteers for every club and do-gooder organization. In addition, through compulsive free-throw practice, he manages to make the basketball team and becomes known, much to his surprise and displeasure, as the team's token Asian-American.
Ben's cohorts are a scruffy bunch, including the smoothly political Daric (Roger Fan), the trigger-happy Virgil (Jason Tobin) and the laconic Han (Sung Kang). There's also the rich kid, Steve John Cho), whose insouciant style and hard-ass manner, of course, manage to snare pretty cheerleader Stephanie Karin Anna Cheung). From scamming, trashing and drugging to bigger and uglier things, The Four Lads soon find themselves in way over their heads.
At its most high-spirited, "Better Luck" is anarchically fun as the four guys trounce the school's convention and, in the process, garner an outlandish reputation -- as members of the Chinese Mafia. But through the touchstone character of Ben, we're increasingly unsettled by the out-of-control character and moral turpitude of their high jinks.
Ripped with a very unsettling ending, "Better Luck" will unnerve many. But its story progression is consistent with its hard-edged look at modern society, family and morals.
Filmmaker Justin Lin's expressive storytelling fits his darkly ironic theme, and the performances are nicely fleshed-out and edgy. As high-achiever Ben, Shen shows the torment of a guy with a lot of smarts but not many values. Adding flavor and craziness is Tobin as Virgil, while Fan is aptly slick as the manipulative Daric. Cheung's saucy, effervescent turn as the fetching cheerleader also rubs smartly against the grain of expectation.
Technical credits are scorchingly good, especially cinematographer Patrice Lucien Cochet's deadly satirical compositions and music supervisor Ernesto M. Foronda's searingly hormonal selections.
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW
Cinetic Media
Producers: Julie Asato, Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin
Director-editor: Justin Lin
Screenwriters: Ernesto M. Foronda,
Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez
Executive producers: Gustavo Spoliansky,
Michael Manshel
Associate producers: Steve Herr, Sung Kang
Director of photography: Patrice Lucien Cochet
Casting: Donna Tina Charles
Music supervisor: Ernesto M. Foronda
Sound mixer: Curtis X. Choy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ben: Parry Shen
Virgil: Jason Tobin
Han: Sung Kang
Daric: Roger Fan
Steve: John Cho
Stephanie: Karin Anna Cheung
Biology teacher: Jerry Mathers
Basketball coach: Kenwood Jung
Running time -- 101 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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