michigandaily.com A R T s
TUESDAY
APRIL 29, 2003 L1
Young director makes 'Better
Luck Tomorrow' come alive
By Joel M. Hoard
Daily Arts Editor
MOVIE REVIEW
Nolte leads the way
n stylish heist flick
By Neal Pais
Daily Arts Writer
M EW
Each year, the ubiquitous
heist/caper film is a perennial
favorite at the box offices; It is usu-
ally formulaic and always pre-
dictable, attempting to lure
audiences with sleek soundtracks,
overly complicated hijinks and
generic witticisms. However, Neil
Jordan's most recent endeavor man-
ages to fit itself into the genre with-
out deigning to use such cheap
selling points. Relying instead on
stylish cinematography and real
intelligence, "The Good Thief" - a
loose adaptation of Jean-Pierre
Melville's film noir, "Bob le Flam-
beur" - shines as an fiber-chic
crime drama.
The film's plot is actually quite
straightforward: Bob (Nick Nolte) is
an American expatriate thief with
grandiose
plans for his The Good Thief
last big score.
Living in a At the Michigan Theater
seedy district FoxSearchlight
of Nice, he is
hampered by compulsive gambling
and a nasty heroin habit. Hitting rock
bottom, he engineers a job with a pay-
off large enough to bring him perma-
nent salvation. With the help of Anne
(Nutsa Kukhianitze),.a cute Russian
6migr6 and Paulo (Said Taghmaoui),
his immensely likeable criminal asso-
ciate, Bob successfully kicks his dou-
ble habit and sets off to fine tune his
daring plan.
Between gritty addiction scenes
and the tender portrayal of Bob
and Anne's uniquely platonic rela-
tionship, "The Good Thief" car-
ries itself with visually stunning
shots of the lazy French country-
side and interesting biblical allu-
sions. The most exciting aspect of
the film, though, is Bob's strong
friendship with Roger (Tchdky
Karyo), the city police chief,
Those mugshot jokes never get old.
which of course puts an interesting
spin on the story. The two men
play the familiar game of cat and
mouse, yet their relationship is
marked by warm affability. Also
appealing is the lack of crudeness
or excessive violence in the film;
rather than over-the-top action
sequences, each scene is deeply
intimate with its employment of
smart humor and actual drama.
"The Good Thief" draws most of
its 6lan, however, from its individual
players. Nutsa Kukhianisze truly
stand outs in her debut English per-
formance - her physical beauty
perfectly juxtaposed with sweetly
impish charm. Nolte, is of course, in
fineform with his endearingly grav-
elly accent and unwavering opti-
misim. Audiences wal delight in a
brief but engaging cameo by Ralph
Fiennes, who plays a ruthless art
peddler in the film.
Neil Jordan's latest work is perhaps
his best since his 1992 hit, "The Cry-
ing Game." Eschewing the traditional
(non-captivating) elements of crime
films, he concentrates instead on the
believability of his story. Although
becoming relatively fantastic at times,
it never sways far from the core of the
plot and remains always grounded
with one of its appealing characters.
"The Good Thief" is certainly one of
the brighter, cleverer heist pictu'bs in
existence - a masterpiece for which
Jordan is sure to reap copious acco-
lades.
Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomor-
row" makes "Boyz N the Hood" and
"Menace It Society" all the more
tragic. Where "Boyz" and "Menace"
saw desperate South Central Los
Angeles youths caught in a cruel
cycle of drugs and violence, "Better
Luck Tomorrow" sees privileged
Orange County teens turning to
crime because they have nothing bet-
ter to do.
With all of the opportunity that
Stheir Compton counterparts lacked,
Ben, Virgil, Daric and Han, the four
Asian-American whiz kids of "Bet-
ter Luck Tomorrow," are on the fast
track to Ivy League educations and
six-figure salaries. Their records are
impeccable: perfect GPAs and test
scores, loads of
extracurriculars
and all of the Better Lucki
community serv- Tomorrow
ice that colleges
are looking for. At the State Theater
But as Ben MTV Films
(Parry Shen)
explains in a voice-over, "Our
straight A's were our passport to
freedom. As long as we got great
grades, our parents didn't care
where we were." What started inno-
cently as standard high school mis-
chief soon led to cheating, drug
dealing and ultimately murder.
Justin Lin composes his cast
almost entirely of Asian-Americans,
but while there are scattered refer-
ence to race - like Daric (Roger
Fan) accusing the basketball coach
of tokenism when Ben makes the
team and the gang being dubbed the
"Chinese Mafia" - he never lets
race become a focal point.
For the most part, Lin's characters
are average American teenagers.
They take on the typical high school
movie roles: there's Ben, the shy kid
with a crush on the pretty cheer-
leader, Stephanie; Virgil, the wise-
cracking smart-ass; Daric, the cool
overachiever who's president of all
the academic clubs and Han, the hip
and mysterious one.
The young cast delivers pitch-per-
fect performances, creating believ-
able American high schoolers -
Parry: Shen and Jason J. Tobin in
particular.
The film opens with Ben and Virgil
(Jason J. Tobin) sunbathing on New
Year's Day, when they are interrupted
by a ringing cell phone - but it's not
Ben's or Virgil's. As the boys soon
discover, it belongs to the freshly
buried body in the backyard. A flash-
back covers the events of the four
months leading up to that point,
chronicling the group's transforma-
tion from hardworking students to
hardworking student-criminals.
With the academic world of high
school mastered, the boys engage in
some extra-extracurricular activi-
ties. They start out with simple
credit card fraud and selling cheat
sheets, and before long, they're
snorting coke, selling drugs and car-
rying guns.
As much as they'd like everyone
to believe it, they're not the hard-
ened gangstas from Crenshaw Blvd.
You'd never catch Doughboy or 0-
Dog crying about going to juvey
after beating up a snooty jock.
Lin's smart direction and even bet-
ter writing allow "Better Luck Tomor-
row" to transcend the teen movie
genre while avoiding the sort of
heavy-handed preaching that usually
accompanies youths-gone-wrong sto-
ries. If "BLT" is any indicator, Lin
will be a force in American filmmak-
ing for some time.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You're always a day away.
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