X
- 2021
- R
- HBO Zone
- 1 h 57 m
- 2021
- R
- HBO Zone
- 1 h 57 m
Summary Antonio LeBlanc (Justin Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from ...
Directed By: Justin Chon
Written By: Justin Chon
- 2021
- R
- HBO Zone
- 1 h 57 m
- 2021
- R
- HBO Zone
- 1 h 57 m
Blue Bayou
58
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary Antonio LeBlanc (Justin Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from ...
Directed By: Justin Chon
Written By: Justin Chon
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
58
50% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
43% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
7% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
58
50% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
43% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
7% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Blue Bayou works as both an emotionally insightful character piece about a man looking for where he belongs, and as a brutal exposé of the lesser-known broken parts of our immigration system.
As Chon calibrates a wide variety of emotions, allowing space for all the agonies, ecstasies, repressions and excesses, he crafts a tale of intergenerational traumas and personal redemptions that is an emotionally complicated yet ultimately cathartic viewing experience.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
6.8
72% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
12% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
16% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 User Ratings
6.8
72% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
12% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
16% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
This film is absolutely amazing. One of the best movies I watched this year. Give it a go, you won't regret it.
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This is a very emotionally moving film with a well thought out script that brings together people of all backgrounds and sheds light on the injustice facing adopted immigrants in the USA. A few points are lost for Alicia Vikkander's inconsistent accents (why not just cast an actual Floridian or at least American) although she does do a great job being vulnerable, and the at-times terrible camera work is blurry overblown, with flecks on the lens thanks to the new old trend of using film stock (just use a digital camera for crying out loud). Sydney Kowalske (the little girl) does an outstanding job and in some ways really carries the movie, though, Justin Chon is equally convincing and surprised me even more so when I found that he had written, acted and directed the movie. The way the movie ties together the bayou (swamp) with the character's history is very well done. If I didn't know better I would have thought the movie had been made by someone who had really gone through this ordeal. I am aware of the controversy surrounding the film, I think he should have involved Adam Crapser as the actor of the movie or at least in the writing or as an executive producer. But perhaps Chon did not trust anyone else in aligning with his vision. The music is very moving and all-in-all the movie will bring you tears and make you wish the world wasn't so unfair and stupid.
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Artfulness and restraint can be admirable qualities in a filmmaker, but rage and despair, when channeled with this much force and purpose, can be undeniably effective substitutes.
Multi-hyphenate Justin Chon has crafted an impressive melodrama, rich in Louisiana atmosphere and with a timely message, but Blue Bayou is marred by its reliance on symbolism and sentiment.
The melodrama can be effective at times, and there’s an admirable urgency with which it tackles significant issues in U.S. immigration policy.
We get a smattering of piercing thoughts about family separation as sanctioned by the U.S. government and a roster of deeply felt performances, but not the vision to see it through.
Blue Bayou is designed to jerk tears out of a plainly tragic scenario, but all it does is expose the strings behind the puppets and the set. In the film’s failures, we can see the limits of good intentions: It doesn’t matter if a heart is in the right place if the mind isn’t too.
Justin Chon did a great job at presenting the drama of thousands of children who aren't granted citizenship despite being adopted by American families, and because of that facing deportation. This is an aspect of being an illegal immigrant in Usa that is rarely told. If we want to find a fault, the movie is sometimes too heavy on melodrama, but this doesn't ruin the overall project, which is blessed with dignity. The call for boycott is absolutely ridiculous: this movie should have won an Oscar, not been boycotted! A special praise to the little Sydney Kowalske for her excellent acting, a crescendo of nuances up to the heart-wrecking ending scene.
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Blue Bayou is a film that walks between a very fine line that separates a narrative overload with sentimental manipulation, and this is because the subject lends itself to it, but at least the director and also protagonist, manages to keep his story as a fairly firm critique of the US immigration system.
The message is important of course, but perhaps a more frank direction would've created more resonance.
I read some professional reviews that said the director could've used more subtlety, but the subject that he addresses doesn't need it.
You can't sugarcoat a theme like this one.
Alicia Vikander is excellent, and her work here deserves more attention. While Justin Chon shows that his career has improved a lot, especially for those who only know about him because of his diminutive participation in The Twilight Saga, and 21 & Over.
Give it a chance. It's not spectacular or anything like that, but it's far from being a bad movie.
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(Mauro Lanari)
The end does not justify the means and Justin Chon, in his fourth film as director and here also screenwriter and main interpreter, proves to be incapable: he does not make it clear where he wants to go before the help of the final captions, he does not decide between the relevance of a childhood trauma and the wrong choices made as an adult, that is, if the responsibilities are parental, personal, systemic, legislative, police, does not use different shots from the close-up (a male version of "La passion de Jeanne d'Arc"?), does not give space to the other protagonists, does not avoid abusing a depressing trumpet in the score, does not dodge the slipping into the melodramatic.
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Wtf did I watch?! First off stop lying with these rates secondly none can act and Justin wtf it sounds like you are humiliating people from the south. Making fun of them or what?! Seriously the terrible accent is disgustingly disturbing! That’s not how they sound bro! And who are these other ones? Sorry not sorry Justin you and your fake actors this movie was pointless. Oh a tearjerker?! Ok put anyone in that scenario yup y’all make viewers cry. But what they really crying at is the bad acting, the horrible horrible accents, the scenes of Justin trying to act all tough seriously please stop. This is a waste of time and money! This movie doesn’t even deserve a one star! Get it together people!
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Production Company
Entertainment One,
MACRO
Release Date Sep 17, 2021
Duration 1 h 57 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline It's not where you're from. It's where you belong.
Awards
Deauville Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Jameson CineFest - Miskolc International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
