This is one of those flicks that begins with a dead guy, then tells you how he got that way. You settle into your seat and say, “OK, here we go. Make it good.” And “Better Luck Tomorrow” does make it good.
Writer/Director Justin Lin takes you on a teenage wasteland odyssey that winks at every high school stereotype you can think of, the largest of all being the academically-driven, buttoned-down Asian American guy that everyone supposedly knows.
After flashing the dead guy, “Better Luck Tomorrow” rushes back to introduce us to Ben (Parry Shen), an angel-faced, all-American boy up to his eyeballs in the extra-curricular activities he is accumulating for his college applications.
His days are marked by a parodic array of wholesome activities including SAT preparation, academic clubs, strategic volunteering, practicing free throws in order to earn his benchwarmer place as the token Asian on the basketball team, completing homework assignments a week early and pining for a cheerleader who won’t give him the time of day. Naturally, Ben hears the whisper of the dark side – wouldn’t you?
Ben befriends three other Asian American overachiever-turned-delinquents and the extra-curricular activities expand to include a cheat sheet racket, trafficking stolen electronics, drug sales and the general terrorizing of the white jock populace.
The film generates much of its wry humor through the juxtaposition of adolescent concerns (academic striving, love-sick crushes and the consuming desire to lose one’s virginity) against the group’s descent into nefarious activities. Student car washes, canned food drives, a formal dance and the pursuit of the coveted Academic Decathlon trophy coexist with the seductive rush of drugs, guns and power.
Yet the stakes seem to remain low. Only when the previously under-challenged Ben is memorizing SAT words at 2a.m. while sucking up enormous quantities of cocaine do we sense any strain.
And all the while, the claustrophobia of teen concerns is unbroken; the adults are entirely absent, with the one wonderful exception of Jerry Mathers in a cameo as a high school biology teacher.
Meanwhile, this train has departed. We’ve got a dead guy to account for.
Fortunately for all of us, the film isn’t just clever. No doubt, it would have earned accolades as such. The cinematography and editing are trendy with tons of the edgy, self-conscious perspective shots that are the cool du jour. Also the performances are spot-on all the way and the writing is utterly smart, though the cleverness does falter on occasion.
Do we need Ben’s vocabulary words to punctuate his state of mind for us? No. Do this device and others get tired? Yes. Do we care? Nah. We don’t care because clever is really just the housing for something far more substantive.
With the exception of Virgil (Jason Tobin), who manifests all of the unhinged nervous energy that the rest of the group suppresses, no one registers much in the way of either remorse or fear until deep in the film, and even then, it is under such strict regulation that you’ll feel the chill. And it’s that chill that makes the whole film.
Do you need to see this? Yes, indeed.
“Better Luck Tomorrow” is rated R for violence, drug use, language and sexuality. and is now playing in theaters everywhere.
