Ranting to /dev/null

Better Luck Tomorrow

Mesh and I saw Better Luck Tomorrow last night at the $2 theater. An interesting, if cliched, film about a group of Asian high schoolers in California who venture into various criminal activities out of sheer lack of anything better to do.

Mesh pointed out, and I agree, that the whole "suburbia as a hell of ennui" is a bit overwrought these days, but to its credit the filmmakers (Justin Lin directs) at least give the characters the benefit of having the suburbia game beaten. They've got the grades, the extracurriculars, decently stable families, affluence, and the early-admissions track in the Ivy league. Still, occasionally the characters seem as if they've paid a bit too much attention to Chuck Palahniuk of Fight Club fame.

The thing that really stuck me about the movie was the complete and utter lack of any adults in these kids' lives. It would have bothered me less if the movie had seemed unrealistic, but it didn't. Except for the slightly glossed over motivations mentioned above, this movie didn't contain any events that stuck me as even implausible. If parents interact with their kids this little, our culture is really screwed.