flicks
Friday, March 26, 2004
better luck tomorrow, 2003.
ben - nice fellow; smart; innocent, but not necessarily 'ethical'; gives you the perspective
the 'gang':
virgil - ben's best friend since 4th grade; not so smart - the weak link; crazy - breaks out with the gun; also the most emotional - cries when they beat high schooler at party, one who shoots himself
han - virgil's cousin; pretty straightfwd fellow, hardass but not mean
derrick - head of all the clubs, organized the cheat sheet network; the most immoral of the bunch - scrambling for the top, and will get there, but never really gets "it"
stephanie - ben's love interest; steve's girlfriend; cute (cheerleader) and smart (gpa) girl; she says decently mature things; of the celia-type - good all around package
steve - rich boy, does well in school; screwed up - has everything but always wants more? just not really getting/appreciating what he has
justin lin - producer
plot: sort of a loop. start w/ scene, then rewind 4mo, eventually get to scene, and then play fwd for just a tad.
end: abrupt, but kinda a good thing b/c i don't think anything realistically good could have come of it.
beginning: pan of suburbia southern CA - looks just like irvine; didn't get the oil drill in the neighborhood.
probably is a short movie. doesn't really let you get bored. so ben and virgil are doing some small scams; ben gets on the basketball team thru sheer effort, gaining some high school status in a good way; derrick writes about him in the paper, ben gets pissed; derrick gets him to join the cheat sheet scheme - money; derrick gets virgil in; they have bigger scams, deal drugs; ben wants out; things are okay for a while; steve wants them to rob his parents' house; things go sour; and that's it.
greed/power; not knowing what's important in life; ties w/ other people (what derrick missed at the end when virgil was laid up in the hospital and he showed no compassion whatsoever, concerned about his own skin); young and first loves (stephanie chose ben at the end, but how to reconcile that w/ him beating her bf into a pulp)
asian - the movie's supposed to be interesting in how nonasian its themes, portrayals, whatnot. nice to just see more asian actors/actresses. stephanie was of the lucy lu type - looked great w/ a gun, "hot" rather than a grace kelly sort of beautiful. ben - a face that one has to love, w/ bushy airbrows, young looking, not much height. virgil just looked kind of dorky. han looked "too" vietnamese/korean. derrick - probably too slick for my taste. and the same w/ steve -- looks more like a pedigree than a person. the dichotomy betw performing well in school gradewise/extracurriculars and doing stuff b/c you can get away with it, people wouldn't suspect. that's mostly it. stephanie was adopted by caucasian parents. people had strange last names - ben henigan? maybe just one that i haven't been enlightened enough to have known.
was shot decently well - SAT words broke up the scenes; okay music that went pretty well with the movie; played w/ the focus at times - nothing too novel, exciting.
high school's just an odd time; they didn't seem to behave like i did when i was in school :P; a lot of drinking, some drugs; not so much emphasis on the sex other than some porn and losing one's virginity
["i was so relieved to get it over with. i thought that i'd die before having sex" mentality. :? so guys' first times don't have to be emotionally drenched?]
ordered pizza, and 1.5hrs for delivery turned into 30minutes. clothes to rescue fr the wash. a whole lot of peds studying to do. if i wasn't so antisocial, i would have invited someone over. but just more efficient to work on own schedule.
been meaning to watch this movie for a long while. came out last year i think. sent an email about it fr katy, promoting support of asian artists, directors.
