BEFORE: It's been five years since I stopped going out to the San Diego Comic Con, but somehow my brain still knows what week it is. I had a huge stress dream this morning that was a mix of a comic-con and my job at the movie theater - in the dream my boss screened his finished movie at the theater, and a huge crowd turned up. There was going to be a director's panel on stage after the film, and I was prepared to be asked up on stage to answer questions, but then the panel didn't happen and we went straight into selling books and other merch, so the crowd formed this big line to buy stuff.
But then my boss told me he couldn't sell any books because he forgot to bring small bills to make change, so just as I started taking the plastic off of these coffee-table books we sell so he could sign them, suddenly the books were gone. And I saw my boss arguing with the theater managers, saying he wanted more money for his appearance fee - or he was going to walk out, which is really stupid because there was this big pile of books and he could have made a lot of money by selling the books, but instead he pulled a diva move and cancelled the merch sales. So the event was suddenly over, but there was still a big pile of books that I had to get back to the studio somehow.
In retrospect, I did two things yesterday, I paid for our table at New York Comic-Con this October and then I swung by the theater on the way home to check on the status of the roof work. That's a bad combination, plus I read a news article about how SAG actors aren't allowed to promote their films during the strike, so that means almost no acting celebrities at San Diego Comic-Con this year, and panels and autograph sessions are being cancelled. Man, if I paid money for a ticket (which I never have) I would be really pissed off and probably demand some kind of refund. And the SDCC JUST came back last year after the pandemic, during which the convention center was used as a place to store San Diego's homeless population. What a downer. They'd better settle this strike fast, before we realize how much of America's economy depends on actors promoting their crappy movies and driving up the box office.
Alicia Vikander carries over again from "Earthquake Bird".
THE PLOT: As a Korean-American man raised in the Louisiana bayou works hard to make a life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
AFTER: I thought this film might be something like "Minari", but it's not, it's really its own thing. There's some kind of loophole in the U.S. immigration policy when it comes to adoptions. Foreign children who were adopted by U.S. couples are somehow not considered full citizens, even if they came to the U.S. when they were very young and raised as Americans for nearly their whole lives. So if they get into trouble as an adult, there's the very real likelihood that they could be deported back to the country of their birth, even if they haven't lived there in decades, have no family there and they don't consider that country as their "home".
The film shows the case of Antonio LeBlanc, who is of Korean descent but identifies as an American, talks like an American, acts like an American, and even has a bit of a criminal record, which is very American. (Right?). He's married to an American woman, so you'd think that would make him a citizen, but no, when the trouble starts that's not much help, as the spouse of an American he could apply for a green card or work visa, steps toward becoming a naturalized citizen, but that would take months, plus he didn't know that he needed to DO that, and also that process just became much more difficult now that he's in trouble with the law. Again. Fighting government red tape is also something that's very American.
The problems start with the fact that his wife has an ex-husband, Ace, the father of her daughter, and he disappeared from their lives for years. Now Ace wants to see his daughter, spend time with her, which is his legal right as a parent, even an absent one, only the daughter, Jessie, does not want to see her father, as she considers Antonio to be her dad in spirit. Well, that's all well and good, but technically it's not up to Jessie, Ace has the legal right to see his daughter, and letting the young girl dictate the rules produces problems for Antonio. Ace happens to be a policeman, and Ace and his partner find the couple arguing in a grocery store, and decide to harass Antonio. When he fights back, it's a big mistake because then he can be charged with civil disobedience, assaulting an officer, and more. Yeah, the cops crossed the line here, they let Ace's personal issues conflict with police business, and sure, racism's involved, too, but the bottom line is that Antonio gets arrested, it's his word against the cop's, and that leads to a hearing on his deportation.
Hiring an immigration lawyer to defend him in court doesn't come cheap, it's $5,000 just to start, and then the bill could increase from there. Antonio says that he'll ask his boss at the tattoo parlor for an advance, but since he owes her money, that's probably not going to work. So he hooks up with his old gang and gets back to stealing motorcycles to raise the money. Sure, what could POSSIBLY go wrong with that plan? It's not like he got arrested for stealing motorcycles before. Oh, wait, he did. And if Antonio's appeal and hearing don't go well, if the judge rules against him, not only will he be deported, but also barred from ever returning to the U.S. Maybe that's justification for stealing motorcycles, but viewed another way, the risk is just too great.
There's so much back-and-forth here that by the end of the film that all gets a little tedious, when the marriage turns to off-again, on-again, and the plan to either leave the U.S. voluntarily or take the big chance with the merit hearing keeps changing. For God's sake, just pick one plan and run with it, at some point as a viewer I don't even care which plan. Let's just move this thing forward and stop being all wishy-washy about it. Instead Antonio forms a friendship with a female Vietnamese immigrant with a terminal illness, who suddenly wants to get some tattoos before she dies, and is willing to pay top dollar. Antonio doesn't feel right taking her money, even though he's got a $5K legal bill to pay (logically this doesn't follow, dude, take her money and put it toward the immigration lawyer's fee!).
NITPICK POINT: Oh, if only Antonio had a connection at I.C.E. - but it's not like there's an I.C.E. officer who comes into the tattoo parlor very often to get work done on his back tattoo. Oh, wait, there is. Why is this plot point not important until the very end of the film?
Who knew that Alicia Vikander can sing? I guess she's not usually called upon to do this in a movie, but she did a very acceptable version of "Blue Bayou" at the party scene. It's maybe a bit odd that the band made up of Vietnamese people knew this song, but then again, I guess it's considered a standard now, so maybe?
Also starring Justin Chon (last seen in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2"), Mark O'Brien (last seen in "Marriage Story"), Linh-Dan Pham (last seen in "Mr. Nobody"), Sydney Kowalske, Vondie Curtis-Hall (last seen in "Harriet"), Emory Cohen (last seen in "The Gambler"), Geraldine Singer (last seen in "Mudbound"), Toby Vitrano, Altonio Jackson, Truong Quang Tran, Ivy Vy Le, Sage Kim Gray, Renell Gibbs (last seen in "Heist"), Jacci Gresham, Martin Bats Bradford (last seen in "When We First Met"), Tyler Henry, Susan McPhail (last seen in 'Breaking News in Yuba County"), Sylvia Grace Crim (ditto), Rhonda Johnson Dents (last seen in "The Hate U Give"), Jim Gleason (last seen in "The Onion Movie"), Brad Blanchard (last seen in "Where the Crawdads Sing"), Josef A. Pons.
RATING: 5 out of 10 ingredients in cajun sausage
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