April 19, 2003


Go See "Better Luck Tomorrow", now in limited release
The two guys in the picture above are cousins. Best friends. High school honors students, bound for the Ivy League School of their choice. Model examples of the "Model Minority".
They also happen to be members of the most feared group of cheats, thieves, drug dealers, and all around thugs in the most lilly-white Orange County suburb you can possibly imagine. Proving the motto that, if you get good grades, you can literally get away with murder.

This is the set up for "Better Luck Tomorrow", a small indie film directed by relative newcomer Justin Line that is, simply, the best film I've seen so far this year. What's even more surprising is that this is a co-production of MTV Films, which may have finally graduated from the sugarcoated simplicity of "Save The Last Dance" and "Varsity Blues" to finally show the first, true teen drama I've seen in a very long time. It's in limited release, so check the website and see if it's in your town. Catch it before it flies away. It gets my strongest possible recommendation.