This is precisely what I wrote upon leaving the theater: “So I’m just out of Blue Bayou, the new Justin Chon film. It’s about the deportation of a Korean – born American which benefits exactly nobody–so par for the course, ICE-wise. Chon (writer/director/star) isn’t much into illusion or fantasy, so we pretty much know how this film is going to go and such [unfortunately] mutes whatever emotion is presented in the film.
We get to literally the last minute of [pre-credits] film, and I’m about to conclude, “yeah, that was OK, I guess. More pictures about the self-defeating idiocy of ICE ought to exist, I suppose.” And then it was as if the film looked directly at me and said, “I see I have not moved you… Let me change that.” And with that, Blue Bayou reached from the screen, wrenched my still-beating heart Temple of Doom style from my chest. “There ya go.”
I have been in tears ever since. Damn you, film!
***
Blue Bayou is fiction, but stories like this one happen every day in America. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon) was adopted from South Korea at age three. His Louisiana-based foster parents gave him an accent, but never gave him legitimacy. And thanks to police bullying, Antonio, who has never known a home other than Louisiana, is going to be deported.
Let’s put the film aside for a second and talk about why. Because I really do believe that random deportation benefits nobody. Well, hold up. It benefits people who gain politically from it. And they are strong enough to make sure it never ceases.
But it is stupid. Contrary to propaganda, mass deportation won’t make the country richer or stronger. Quite the opposite. I understand what it is to be threatened … maybe not with violence, but with the loss of a job or the withholding of a paycheck. The thing is –there are a lot of assumptions there we just gloss over. I won’t even go into them. I will simply state the obvious: you WANT a country that foreigners want to be part of. That is strength. Given the world’s best army or the world’s most desirable country, which would you rather have? I’d take the latter in a heartbeat. Think about all the countries you don’t even want to visit, let alone live there. Would they be more attractive with a nuclear arsenal? Is that really what you want?
Antonio’s case is a fairly typical American story: he lives with his wife Kathy (Alicia Vickander), and the his step
-daughter, Jesse (Sydney Kowlske). He and Kathy have a baby on the way. Antonio is a skilled motorcycle repairman, but his crimes from a broken youth have made this profession off-limits. So he’s a tattoo artist, And his tattoo artistry pays just enough to earn a terrible living.
Kathy’s ex, Ace (Mark O’Brien), is a cop. Ace may not be racist, but you can bet his partner is, and one day without really thinking or planning it, the two just up and ruin Antonio’s life. It starts as so many bad turns start … with an unnecessary show of power. Is it unfair to portray these cops as the kind of jerks who would harass a man until he retaliates (and, thus, incurs arrest)? I don’t see why not; it’s been part of the police playbook ever since the institution began. And every awful consequence that comes from this arrest can be traced exactly back to this one scuffle instigated by local law.
Like the overloved Minari, Blue Bayou drifts for a while before flooring you with a climax. It’s not a bad film by any measure, but as I noted above, we KNOW exactly what’s going to happen. There isn’t going to be a Perry Mason moment here. And thus the heartache seems almost anti-climactic. It doesn’t mean it’s not there or isn’t real; it’s just muted. Well, that is until right before the close. Much as I love Alicia Vickander, it is Sydney Kowlske who steals this film. The relationship between Sydney and her step-father is the most important one in Blue Bayou and Justin Chon knows it. This is his best and most mature film to date and I am curious to see where his writing/directing goes from here.
♪I feel so bad I got a busted lip
Couldn’t give the popo the slip
Any ideas, just let ‘er rip
It’s déjà vu
Existence can be sublime
Doesn’t matter what’s a crime
Deportation’s a matter of time
It’s déjà vu
Looks like my trip’s one way
The cops cray-cray
It’s déjà vu
Got manhandled by
The system’s lie
It’s déjà vu
Gonna suck it up
Like a punished pup
They just say “sucks to be you”
I know that this ain’t right
Cuz I ain’t white
It’s déjà vu♫
Rated R, 117 Minutes
Director: Justin Chon
Writer: Justin Chon
Genre: How to create a problem where none exists, American style
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The soon-to-be deported
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The heartless
♪ Parody Inspired by “Blue Bayou”
