Better Luck Tomorrow
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: B
Better Luck Tomorrow was a noteworthy bright spot in
the spring of 2003. Much like 2002’s Narc, the film was independently
produced on a tiny budget, only to be discovered on the festival circuit and
picked up by Paramount for theatrical release – Better Luck ended up under the studio’s MTV Films division. The studio arguably botched the release of
both these films, opting for wide releases when the films required the
nurturing of a more gradual art-house unveiling. Critics found them, but audiences didn’t; the films were in and
out of theaters, largely unseen.
Hopefully audiences will embrace them on DVD.
Better Luck tells the story of a group of
over-achieving Asian-American high school students – Ben (Parry Shen, leading a
remarkably capable ensemble) is our focus – who have their tidy suburban lives
a little too figured out. Their ace
grades and endless resumes of activities and volunteering have assured their
Ivy League dreams; it’s just a matter of waiting. They’re bored, fiercely capable, and above suspicion. Why not mix it up with a little drugs and
thuggery?
It’s a
story we’ve seen before, but never quite like this. Easily one of the more important recent entries in the
teenagers-behaving-badly genre, the film plays something like a Scorsese
picture set in a John Hughes high school.
Young
writer-editor-director Justin Lin does a surprising amount with not much money;
Better Luck Tomorrow looks
significantly better than it should.
Lin brings plenty of style, though it is decidedly unobtrusive. The film is first and foremost
character-driven. Lin’s deceptively
simple portraits and cast of young faces you’ve never seen make for an offbeat
rise-and-fall crime film that packs more punch than you’ll see coming. It’s a nice little announcement for Lin; I’m
certainly anxious to see what he can do with a reasonable budget.
Presented
anamorphically in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Better Luck Tomorrow looks surprisingly good. The sharpness of the transfer is impressive,
especially for a low-budget film.
Compression is a non-issue. The
film’s bright color scheme looks solid and vibrant. The transfer is a noticeable improvement over Paramount’s Narc disc, which is surprising
considering their similar origins. The
disc’s Dolby Digital 5.1 mix isn’t quite so remarkable. The mix is straightforward and easily solid;
it’s just not very active, outside of a few subtle surround effects. It takes the film’s rock-techno soundtrack
to really get your speakers going; only the music comes across forcefully and
with any sort of low end.
The
disc’s lone extra is a commentary track by Lin and his co-writers, Ernesto M.
Foronda and Fabian Marquez.
Unfortunately, the track is rather a waste. Lin and crew keep it pleasant, but a bit too light; they rarely
come through with anything all that interesting, mostly opting to reminisce on
and romanticize their ultra-low-budget filmmaking experience. They discuss little of Better Luck’s evolution, save for an interesting point about how
the film would have ended differently if MTV Films hadn’t bailed them out with
some additional cash. Toward the end of
the track, the participants run out of subjects and long silences prevail. All in all, a disappointing track.
Paramount
and MTV Films did Better Luck Tomorrow
the solid of putting it in theaters, but they’ve stopped short of giving the
film a full-on DVD special edition.
While the film is competently presented here, the lack of extras makes
the disc a questionable purchase.
- Chad
Eberle
