Better Luck Tomorrow's Recent Activity

list Better Luck Tomorrow's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Better Luck Tomorrow on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg Better Luck Tomorrow's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 Film:Better Luck Tomorrow http://www.spout.com/films/Better_Luck_Tomorrow/205647/default.aspx

Title: Better Luck Tomorrow
Year: 2003
Director: Justin Lin
Plot: A group of unlikely high school students take up crime as an extracurricular activity in this independent drama. Ben (Parry Shen) is a 16-year-old high school student who is the living embodiment of the stereotypical Asian overachiever. Ben obsessively studies even though he gets straight A's, takes part in a dizzying variety of school activities and community volunteer work, which he thinks will look good on his resume to colleges, and is even a member of the basketball team, even though he spends most of the season riding the pine. Ben also hopes being part of the team will help him win the heart of Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung), a cute but equally obsessive girl who is on the cheerleading squad. When the big man on campus, Daric (Roger Fan), publishes an article in the school newspaper that points out Ben's true role on the team is to add a touch of ethnic diversity to satisfy Board of Education requirements, Ben is so embarrassed he quits the team and imagines his academic future going up in smoke. Daric seizes the opportunity to propose that he and Ben go into business, creating and selling detailed cheat sheets for school tests and placement exams. The cheat sheets are an immediate hit, and soon Ben and Daric advance to other forms of low-level crime, including drug dealing and fencing stolen goods. Before long, Ben and Daric are joined by a handful of friends -- Ben's close friend and part-time kleptomaniac Virgil (Jason Tobin), Hong Kong gangster wannabe Han (Sung Kang), and Steve (John Cho), a kid from a wealthy family who happens to be dating Stephanie -- but they soon find themselves moving deeper into the criminal underworld than they ever anticipated, and things get ugly when they try to move on. Better Luck Tomorrow was enthusiastically received in its screenings at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 7
Number of Lists: 8
Number of blog posts: 1
Number of discussion threads: 1
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:09:00 GMTBetter Luck Tomorrow2003Justin LinA group of unlikely high school students take up crime as an extracurricular activity in this independent drama. Ben (Parry Shen) is a 16-year-old high school student who is the living embodiment of the stereotypical Asian overachiever. Ben obsessively studies even though he gets straight A's, takes part in a dizzying variety of school activities and community volunteer work, which he thinks will look good on his resume to colleges, and is even a member of the basketball team, even though he spends most of the season riding the pine. Ben also hopes being part of the team will help him win the heart of Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung), a cute but equally obsessive girl who is on the cheerleading squad. When the big man on campus, Daric (<a href="/players/P___272160/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Roger Fan</a>), publishes an article in the school newspaper that points out Ben's true role on the team is to add a touch of ethnic diversity to satisfy Board of Education requirements, Ben is so embarrassed he quits the team and imagines his academic future going up in smoke. Daric seizes the opportunity to propose that he and Ben go into business, creating and selling detailed cheat sheets for school tests and placement exams. The cheat sheets are an immediate hit, and soon Ben and Daric advance to other forms of low-level crime, including drug dealing and fencing stolen goods. Before long, Ben and Daric are joined by a handful of friends -- Ben's close friend and part-time kleptomaniac Virgil (Jason Tobin), Hong Kong gangster wannabe Han (Sung Kang), and Steve (<a href="/players/P___224268/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>John Cho</a>), a kid from a wealthy family who happens to be dating Stephanie -- but they soon find themselves moving deeper into the criminal underworld than they ever anticipated, and things get ugly when they try to move on. Better Luck Tomorrow was enthusiastically received in its screenings at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide7Taggedy Taggged (6-10)8113http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t33493qttfs.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Better_Luck_Tomorrow/205647/default.aspxFilm Spout Post: Imitation of Angst : Gypsy 83 http://www.spout.com/blogs/jlgdrd/archive/2007/8/14/18033.aspx

Post By: jlgdrd
Post To: Wicked Fun
Post Date: 8/14/2007 3:09:00 AM
Body: Often there comes a time when a bad (or inept, or failed) movie will unwittingly tip its hand. It could be a piece of dialogue that encapsulates a central flaw, or it might be a device that functions as damage control. In Gypsy 83, it’s a chapter when Gypsy and Clive, en route to a singing competition in New York, spend an evening with a more or less retired singer, Bambi LeBleau (Karen Black). She is congenial, down-to-earth, unperturbed and dishonest only in the sense that she is trying to put a brave face on adversity. Black has been acting for at least thirty years now (Five Easy Pieces, Nashville, Easy Rider) and her screen presence and skill are so effortless that they too often go unnoticed. Her performance appears to infect Sara Rue (Gypsy) and Kett Turton (Clive) who seem completely different in this sequence, and outshines them in the rest of the film. She’s invested in the role, but experienced enough to trust her intuitions. When they decide to leave Bambi behind as if she were some kind of albatross, the irony could bring down a skyscraper. And you have to wonder if even the director, Todd Stephens, was in on the joke. Twenty minutes into Gypsy 83, watching Clive and Gypsy tape each other in a graveyard, chilling in Clive’s basement and shocking the bourgeoisie bumpkins in Sandusky, Ohio, I wanted to pull out my hair. It’s not that I couldn’t understand why they loved each other, spent all their time together, or sought refuge in Goth regalia. Living in a middle-class, Midwestern wasteland, I’m sure jet-black hair dye and purple eye shadow would provide a great sense of relief. But it all felt so contrived. So lame. When I compare it to other films where we’re asked to sympathize with outcasts and fringe dwellers or at least enjoy their anarchy, it rings hollow. In movies like Rumble Fish , Prey For Rock and Roll , Better Luck Tomorrow, even Rebel Without a Cause, we care about the protagonists, we understand their struggles, but we never feel sorry for them. When the Greasers kicked ass at the end of The Outsiders, you’d better believe I was cheering for them. I was yelling at the screen. Gypsy and Clive don’t even play out as antiheroes, they’re just a little too waiflike. To an excessive degree, Stephens doesn’t trust us to recognize their frailties without having them spelled out in dialogue. To let the camera convey meaning. Sara Rue’s best moments are when she’s singing, though I think making her a Stevie Nicks clone was a mistake. She’s confident and instinctive, and it’s truly pleasurable to listen to her gravelly, magnificent voice. The rest of the time her performance and Kett Turton’s feel just horribly forced. They look really good, but lack conviction. And frankly, I never thought a film of this sort could be so hokey. During their road trip to The Big Apple the two pick up an Amish hitchhiker (Anson Scoville) and he’s so stiff (not because he’s Amish but amateurish) that you get the impression Stephens chose him solely on pretty-boy appeal. In an early scene where Gypsy tells off a dowager, clearly intended to represent Decent Society, the movie just comes to a halt. The old woman’s speech sounds so flat and didactic. This may be in a sense accurate, but it’s bad writing, bad acting. The two women aren’t connecting with each other or the audience. It’s pretty sad when a film can’t incite animosity for a character we’re predisposed to hate. Gypsy 83 has all the earmarks of a project that looked good on paper. And it has the plot elements for good narrative: search for identity, the missing mother, coming clean, owning up, painful truths, escape to the shining Metropolis, the homoeroticism behind fraternities. Though, of course, the problem is less about content than execution. Stephens wastes numerous opportunities to dramatize what he pisses away on text. The film is 92 minutes long, but goes it on and on. There are plausible, impressive episodes like when Gypsy succumbs to fear at a karaoke contest, or Zechariah (Amish boy on the lam) spontaneously kisses Clive on the mouth, but unfortunately, these are rare. It’s unusual, I think, to find a low-budget, Independent film that seems so facile, so self-congratulatory. There’s no tension, no enhancement between the interpretive attitude of the filmmaker and the attitude of the actors. Such as it is. There isn’t a lot of steam behind Rue and Turton’s work. They don’t seem to be tapping into genuine passion or seething with it underneath. In a way it’s inexplicable, we see Clive and Gypsy at times of emotional upheaval; traumatic, humiliating, life-changing moments when we want to empathize, but there’s nothing to engage us. To pull us in. When we care less about the characters than we would for a Smurf.
]]>Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:09:00 GMTjlgdrdWicked Fun8/14/2007 3:09:00 AM Often there comes a time when a bad (or inept, or failed) movie will unwittingly tip its hand. It could be a piece of dialogue that encapsulates a central flaw, or it might be a device that functions as damage control. In Gypsy 83, it’s a chapter when Gypsy and Clive, en route to a singing competition in New York, spend an evening with a more or less retired singer, Bambi LeBleau (Karen Black). She is congenial, down-to-earth, unperturbed and dishonest only in the sense that she is trying to put a brave face on adversity. Black has been acting for at least thirty years now (Five Easy Pieces, Nashville, Easy Rider) and her screen presence and skill are so effortless that they too often go unnoticed. Her performance appears to infect Sara Rue (Gypsy) and Kett Turton (Clive) who seem completely different in this sequence, and outshines them in the rest of the film. She’s invested in the role, but experienced enough to trust her intuitions. When they decide to leave Bambi behind as if she were some kind of albatross, the irony could bring down a skyscraper. And you have to wonder if even the director, Todd Stephens, was in on the joke. Twenty minutes into Gypsy 83, watching Clive and Gypsy tape each other in a graveyard, chilling in Clive’s basement and shocking the bourgeoisie bumpkins in Sandusky, Ohio, I wanted to pull out my hair. It’s not that I couldn’t understand why they loved each other, spent all their time together, or sought refuge in Goth regalia. Living in a middle-class, Midwestern wasteland, I’m sure jet-black hair dye and purple eye shadow would provide a great sense of relief. But it all felt so contrived. So lame. When I compare it to other films where we’re asked to sympathize with outcasts and fringe dwellers or at least enjoy their anarchy, it rings hollow. In movies like Rumble Fish , Prey For Rock and Roll , Better Luck Tomorrow, even Rebel Without a Cause, we care about the protagonists, we understand their struggles, but we never feel sorry for them. When the Greasers kicked ass at the end of The Outsiders, you’d better believe I was cheering for them. I was yelling at the screen. Gypsy and Clive don’t even play out as antiheroes, they’re just a little too waiflike. To an excessive degree, Stephens doesn’t trust us to recognize their frailties without having them spelled out in dialogue. To let the camera convey meaning. Sara Rue’s best moments are when she’s singing, though I think making her a Stevie Nicks clone was a mistake. She’s confident and instinctive, and it’s truly pleasurable to listen to her gravelly, magnificent voice. The rest of the time her performance and Kett Turton’s feel just horribly forced. They look really good, but lack conviction. And frankly, I never thought a film of this sort could be so hokey. During their road trip to The Big Apple the two pick up an Amish hitchhiker (Anson Scoville) and he’s so stiff (not because he’s Amish but amateurish) that you get the impression Stephens chose him solely on pretty-boy appeal. In an early scene where Gypsy tells off a dowager, clearly intended to represent Decent Society, the movie just comes to a halt. The old woman’s speech sounds so flat and didactic. This may be in a sense accurate, but it’s bad writing, bad acting. The two women aren’t connecting with each other or the audience. It’s pretty sad when a film can’t incite animosity for a character we’re predisposed to hate. Gypsy 83 has all the earmarks of a project that looked good on paper. And it has the plot elements for good narrative: search for identity, the missing mother, coming clean, owning up, painful truths, escape to the shining Metropolis, the homoeroticism behind fraternities. Though, of course, the problem is less about content than execution. Stephens wastes numerous opportunities to dramatize what he pisses away on text. The film is 92 minutes long, but goes it on and on. There are plausible, impressive episodes like when Gypsy succumbs to fear at a karaoke contest, or Zechariah (Amish boy on the lam) spontaneously kisses Clive on the mouth, but unfortunately, these are rare. It’s unusual, I think, to find a low-budget, Independent film that seems so facile, so self-congratulatory. There’s no tension, no enhancement between the interpretive attitude of the filmmaker and the attitude of the actors. Such as it is. There isn’t a lot of steam behind Rue and Turton’s work. They don’t seem to be tapping into genuine passion or seething with it underneath. In a way it’s inexplicable, we see Clive and Gypsy at times of emotional upheaval; traumatic, humiliating, life-changing moments when we want to empathize, but there’s nothing to engage us. To pull us in. When we care less about the characters than we would for a Smurf. Spout Post: Re: most overrated gay movie http://www.spout.com/groups/Queer_Cinema/Re_most_overrated_gay_movie/318/12797/1/ShowPost.aspx

Post By: lukasblu
Post To: Queer Cinema
Post Date: 7/1/2007 9:45:03 PM
Body: gregg araki films i've seen and liked The Doom Generation, and Mysterious Skin;i am also af fan of james duval and rose mcgowan from doom generation;And i like joseph gordon lewitt from mysterious skinIn the ending of doom generation;i saw amy being tortured and it looked like xavier was dead or dying;I do not understand how both xavier and amy survived without a scratch or the fact that they survived at all;Only jordan did not make it and die??Can you explain to me that ending on your viewpoint?I watched this movie with my nephew and a friend and we were all perplexed with the endingI use to think that james duval was related to robert duvall but they have no blood relations whatsoever;the spellings of their last name is different;james last name has one L and roberts has two L's;And i always thought that james was much younger in age(because of the roles he plays and the way he looks):He's actually 34:this are just trivial things i found out about james recently; Anyway that must have been the coolest...... feeling seeing james in person and brushing shoulders with;I know i would be in heaven seeing a fave thespian in real life!!!As i read the script,reviews of Nowhere, i realized that i have seen this movie on tv;I never realized that this was the title of this movie ;All icould remember was that it had james duval in it;So i started looking for james duvall in imdb and was amazed with to see all the many movies to his credit. Nowhere was a crazy teen(all-star cast)movie that starts out as a few teens in a car pick up this guy and asks him if they wants to cut school and hang out them;It was a very interesting movieSplendor ,i found in my local blockbuster and available online for rent;I put it in my queue The Living End and Totally F***ed Up(they are n/a on blockbuster online) I will probably catch it on tv(ifc,sundance,etc..) ;Same way i found mysterious skin and the doom generationSince you like greg araki,you probably/may like movies that deal with young adults/teens in very disturbed situations/ disturbed subject matter:or the young in very unique,one -of-a-kind situations;I like movies that deal with this subject;A few flicks that i liked are:The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things(2004) or anything with asia argento,SLC Punk(1999),The Chumscrubber (2005),The Dreamers (2003)or many movies with micheal pitt,Niagara Niagara (1997),Party Monster (2002),Rosetta (1999),Freeway (1996),Better Luck Tomorrow (2002),Black and White(1999),Dazed and Confused (1993),Go (1999). You might have seen most of them ,since you have hundreds of movies listed on your page just like me
]]>Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:45:03 GMTlukasbluQueer Cinema7/1/2007 9:45:03 PMgregg araki films i've seen and liked The Doom Generation, and Mysterious Skin;i am also af fan of james duval and rose mcgowan from doom generation;And i like joseph gordon lewitt from mysterious skinIn the ending of doom generation;i saw amy being tortured and it looked like xavier was dead or dying;I do not understand how both xavier and amy survived without a scratch or the fact that they survived at all;Only jordan did not make it and die??Can you explain to me that ending on your viewpoint?I watched this movie with my nephew and a friend and we were all perplexed with the endingI use to think that james duval was related to robert duvall but they have no blood relations whatsoever;the spellings of their last name is different;james last name has one L and roberts has two L's;And i always thought that james was much younger in age(because of the roles he plays and the way he looks):He's actually 34:this are just trivial things i found out about james recently; Anyway that must have been the coolest...... feeling seeing james in person and brushing shoulders with;I know i would be in heaven seeing a fave thespian in real life!!!As i read the script,reviews of Nowhere, i realized that i have seen this movie on tv;I never realized that this was the title of this movie ;All icould remember was that it had james duval in it;So i started looking for james duvall in imdb and was amazed with to see all the many movies to his credit. Nowhere was a crazy teen(all-star cast)movie that starts out as a few teens in a car pick up this guy and asks him if they wants to cut school and hang out them;It was a very interesting movieSplendor ,i found in my local blockbuster and available online for rent;I put it in my queue The Living End and Totally F***ed Up(they are n/a on blockbuster online) I will probably catch it on tv(ifc,sundance,etc..) ;Same way i found mysterious skin and the doom generationSince you like greg araki,you probably/may like movies that deal with young adults/teens in very disturbed situations/ disturbed subject matter:or the young in very unique,one -of-a-kind situations;I like movies that deal with this subject;A few flicks that i liked are:The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things(2004) or anything with asia argento,SLC Punk(1999),The Chumscrubber (2005),The Dreamers (2003)or many movies with micheal pitt,Niagara Niagara (1997),Party Monster (2002),Rosetta (1999),Freeway (1996),Better Luck Tomorrow (2002),Black and White(1999),Dazed and Confused (1993),Go (1999). You might have seen most of them ,since you have hundreds of movies listed on your page just like me Spout Tag:Loved-It http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Loved-It/MemberTagFilms.aspxLoved-It
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]]>Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:30:32 GMT1200Tag Spout Tag:overachiever http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/overachiever/MemberTagFilms.aspxoverachiever
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