Movie Review: East Bay

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An intelligent and thought provoking film. 

This is not a perfect movie, but it is obviously a very personal film for director/writer/star Daniel Yoon. Because of this you can feel the filmmaker's personal connection to this movie in every scene. There is such a passion to this film that it simply becomes hard to resist. Also, because this film is so personal it perfectly conveys the main character's situation of feeling like he is not the success his parents wanted him to be. Because of this anyone watching can understand and feel for what this character is going through regardless of how their life has been. And those who have felt this way before or currently do will immediately relate and find a lot of truth in this film. The movie also perfectly explores his loss of faith in God and how he has to come to acceptance that life will always be a mystery to him. Meanwhile as he attempts to make a documentary about people's faith, this film intelligently studies how the faith that people either have or were raised with has shaped them as a person. Though this movie takes an agnostic (or even atheistic) view of faith, it never mocks any faith but rather shows respect and understanding for each of these characters. This is especially expressed very well towards the last act of the movie which will leave you with a lot of food for thought as you leave the movie. This film becomes a very intelligent look at dealing with a life that is far different from what you planned and may or may not have any meaning. It is not a movie about finding meaning in life but rather in finding beauty in a possibly meaningless life. 

This movie is also told in a very clever way. It is told in the style of a film festival style documentary, like the one our main character is making. This is not simply a gimmick, but it helps us see the story from our main character's eyes. As well as this it also gives the film a more relaxed and introspective feel. 

The main problem with this movie is that it is not as funny as it should be. This film is in equal parts a comedy and a drama. While the comedy is not really bad, it simply never feels as funny as it is trying to be. The immatureness of the main character's friends also wears thin very quickly. 

While flawed, the personal passion put into this movie makes it great watching for any movie fan.