Blue Bayou (2021)

Top marks for performances, particularly Ms. Vikander, but the way it all went down was rather outlandish, and I've never seen an ending tug harder at the heart strings.

Fmovies: "Listen to him, look at him. He's American."

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. Blue Bayou hit some fall festivals, mainly because of its release shortly after them, but there was definite potential in creating a touching story. Justin Chon has worked his way up from playing Eric in Twilight and is now a filmmaker himself with a few films already. This is his most personal yet from what I've been told and I can understand why. It's one of those movies that covers an issue needing attention with stats right before the credits roll. As important of a topic this is, the movie falls into tropes of an overly dramatic feature we've seen in variations. Let me start out by saying a Justin Chon has potential as a filmmaker. The direction may not be spot on and the same goes for the writing, but he has an eye on what he wanted to invoke. The way it's shot is honestly what carries the whole thing. With it being shot on film, there's an automatic home movie feel to it that puts us right in the spot of the characters. And the cinematography is some of the best we've seen this year. The visuals are rich with color and it's warm to look at. I have but one complaint and that's that the handheld cam can get a little too shaky where it feels like we're watching a scene out of Cloverfield.

The acting is really good from Justin Chon and Alicia Vikander. He goes for it giving his best performance yet, though Vikander stole the show for me. Maybe this is because of his character. I wanted to like him and I did to begin with. But as we learn more about him and see his true persona it can be difficult to like or connect with. There are bad decisions made that we know are what make him flawed, but since there's hardly any work to fix them, I didn't care too much for him as it went along. I wanted the overall outcome to be ok for him and his family, but it's difficult to like after some time. There's a character introduced that ends up being a bigger part. Linh Dah Pham does great with her, but her character didn't feel relevant other than a deeper meaning that was supposed to bring out more character. Most of the characters aren't written as well as they should be. What really annoyed me was the classic racist cop. He's an awful character as he should be and a necessary part, but all the dialogue given and how he is written just isn't that good. Since it falls into many tropes, you kind of have to get used to it after a while. There are scenes, mainly the end, where the music swells so loud to get at your emotions. It was a little overkill, but the music is good. And going back to the end, as abrupt as it may be I could understand and get behind it. Blue Bayou needed to find its voice a little more to make a grounded story. It's not bad, but it's another movie this September (and we've had multiple so far) that should've been better. It's alright but not one that I see myself revisiting for years.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was very emotional and moving. Definitely one of the best dramas I've watched this year. Hats off to Justin Chon for making an amazing film. 8 stars.

Blue Bayou fmovies. Antonio is a young dad and a recently cleaned up criminal - but life comes barreling down on him as he faces deportation as an incorrectly adopted Korean kid. Vikander brings the seasoned depth to this drama that makes the film worth it.

ICE ICE baby...

A drama written, directed, produced, and acted by Justin Chon about a Korean immigrant facing deportation.

The first hour and a half of this movie was very solid. For the most part I enjoyed the acting, which were raw and strong. The relationship between the main character and his stepdaughter was endearing. There's a subplot of him and a Vietnamese family that was also investing. The drama was solid, and brought up an important theme about another side of immigration and deportation that surprised me.

However, like a soccer player with amazing dribbling skill but terrible finishing shot that always miss the goal, the last 20 minutes of this movie became messy and ruined its great buildup. I felt like I just skipped a part of this movie, because some side characters turned sides in a snap. Because of this, the ending lost a lot of the emotional impact.

I loved that the script included the Vietnamese into the movie, but then I became perplexed, and honestly a bit annoyed, at how this subplot was meant only as a tool to add to the message. The Vietnamese characters had almost no relevancy to the plot. It was as if Justin forced himself to include the Vietnamese because both the Korean and Vietnamese went through wars that led to mass immigration.

Overall, a potentially impactful movie, but ruined by its forcing and questionable plot. 6.5/10.

Wow, what a shame that while this film has some great acting, that it decides to alter facts in order to create a pollical message that is inaccurate.

There are no unnaturalized adoptees who have spent their lives in the US who are deported unless they commit serious crime. In fact the deportees virtually all have committed serious crimes -- as did the person on whom this film is loosely based.

We had a case in my kids school of a step-father who was getting deported and here was an effort in the school to get parents to write in support of the step father. It turns out he had not one, but two, distribution level felony narcotics offenses, including one with a third felony (pled to misdemeanor) gun offense the year before. They guy was literally a illegal gun totting drug pusher with violent gang affiliation.

I am shocked that other reviewers are bringing up DACA. Under Obama's DACA, the case that this story is based on, the guy would be DEPORTED. He amassed a long record of crimes including violent crime and gun crime. To be a felon in possession of a firearm means you have committed TWO felonies

The fact is that even legal immigrants -- who already awarded citizenship can -- in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the EU-- be deported as well if they commit violent crime. If the character, or the one who it is based on, had in fact been given citizenship, they could still be deported given the violent nature of their criminal conviction.