Blue Bayou

A free preview pass and Alicia Vikander attracted me to the movies this evening. The intense acting and generally good filmcraft are strengths. The regional accents and a certain performance of the namesake song are standouts. But there are diverging subplots all over the place, detracting from the main theme. Sometimes the characters do not ring true and are otherwise too unsympathetic.

This was made expressly to champion the cause of international adoptees who become deportable because their stateside adopting parents failed to satisfy all the formalities. Their plight is akin to that of the Dreamers. The film comes just when a "fix" in the form of the proposed Adoptee Citizenship Act is pending. To get that enacted is indeed a worthy cause.

This is a nice emotional family drama. Its story is beautiful, real, sad, and heartbreaking. It also tackles an important topic and spreads awareness about a serious issue. My only issue with it is that it has many subplots that makes it a bit distant and messy sometimes. Performances are solid by both Chon and Vikander.

Justin Chon did a great job with this one. It's not often you get a director/writer/lead actor in a movie but he did all of those and it was all very well done. The story is poignant, quite incredible that something like this is even possible in real life, but it is sadly the reality, and that in a country that wants to be the example for the rest of the world. To be honest I found this incredibly sad, and that in the land of the free, in the land of opportunities. Justin Chon is not only a good writer but he was also very convincing in his role as the American-Korean. The rest of the cast were also very good playing their respective characters, especially the young Sydney Kowalske. She played very natural, almost like she wasn't acting, and that's not given to a lot of child actors. Blue Bayou isn't a movie that will leave you with a smile, and that's good, because these kind of stories are still happening now, and a smile would just be wrong when you think about all the lives that have been destroyed.

His biggest film yet in a career that still feels as though its only just beginning, actor, Youtuber and director Justin Chon delivers his biggest project yet in the form of the New Orleans set immigration themed drama Blue Bayou, a familiar feeling character drama that is nevertheless an effective and emotionally engaging experience with great performances from the multi-tasking Chon and the radiant Alicia Vikander.

Perhaps most well known in popular culture as Eric from the Twilight saga, Korean blooded Chon delivers a heartbreaking performance as down on his luck tattoo artist, one time felon and family man Antonio LeBlanc, who finds his workmanlike life turned on its head when he faces the possibility of being deported from the United States after a run in with the law and a discovery that his adoptive American parents never filed the correct paperwork to legally declare him an American citizen.

Based around some confronting home truths occurring in the United States in this present day when it comes to their dealings with long term citizens but not legally recognized ones, Bayou hits fairly hard when its stars align and the chemistry between Chon and Vikander as his long suffering but devoted wife Kathy and her daughter Jessie (a nice turn from young actress Sydney Kowalske) ensures that this intimate and raw humanly centered drama makes for some of 2021's most touching moments as the LeBlanc's try their best to keep their heads above water with the past and present converging to hold them under.

Shot in a documentary like manner, with Chon keeping things focused tight on his films subjects on most occasions throughout, Bayou never feels Hollywoodized or materialistic and even while it has a few too many narrative devices that don't feel fully formed or too convenient for dramatic tension, the performances and honesty on show here will keep willing audiences involved throughout its entirety.

As an added bonus to the film itself, its reliving too see the talented Vikander as good she's been in years, with a rough period of recent times that includes the likes of Beckett, Earthquake Bird, Jason Bourne and Tulip Fever all failing to make a mark or give material worthy to the talented performer who shone so bright in the likes of Ex Machina and The Light Between Oceans, Vikander's performance here in Chon's tale is a stern reminder that she's one of the best working in the industry today when picking the right projects.

Final Say -

It doesn't rewrite the dramatic rulebook and follow's a fairly well-worn path too its emotional climax but Blue Bayou signals both a return to form for Alicia Vikander and an official announcing of Chon as a filmmaker to get excited about.

4 sausages out of 5.

For more reviews check out Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)

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.