By: Andrew Wing

Blue Bayou is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Justin Chon (also directed Gook and Ms. Purple). The film stars Chon (The Twilight Saga, 21 & Over), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl), Mark O’Brien (Ready or Not), Linh Dan Pham (Ninja Assassin), Sydney Kowalske, Vondie Curtis-Hall (Chicago Hope, Daredevil) and Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines, Brooklyn).

Inspired by true events, the film tells a moving and timely story that follows a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Vikander), and stepdad to their beloved daughter Jessie (Kowalske). 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 the only country he has ever called home.

Blue Bayou had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 13, 2021, and was released in the United States on September 17, 2021, by Focus Features.

THE GOOD

I know I said a couple of months back that I was done reviewing films that were released last year, but there have just been a couple of films from 2021 that have taken what feels like years to get to streaming. For example, take a review I did last week in The Card Counter (see my full review here), another film that was distributed by Focus Features that just didn’t make it to any theaters in Maine that were near me. With Blue Bayou, I have been eagerly awaiting to check this out and review it ever since it premiered at Cannes almost a full year ago. I didn’t know much about Justin Chon going in, but I absolutely love Alicia Vikander in everything she is in, and I was also excited to see a film like this that dives deeper into a very serious problem in our country that doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to the number of adopted people that face deportation. That said, was this film worth the long wait, and did its intriguing premise make for an overall solid film? Keep reading to find out!

As I said earlier, I didn’t know much about Justin Chon going into this movie. He’s an indie filmmaker, but what little I know of him is more from his early acting days in the early 2010s. All that said, I will surely not forget Justin Chon after seeing this, that is for damn sure. First of all, he directed the shit out of this. From the film’s unique aspect ratio he decided on, to the long takes, to some of the other decisions he made, this was just some great direction from the young Chon and I am anxious for what he will put out next because he clearly knows how to make a very empathetic film. Also, he wrote an incredible screenplay here that contains a sort of call to action about both immigration and the United States Justice System. More than that, the script was so good that he was able to do both that and also find an identity as a character study for Chon’s character in the film, Antonio LeBlanc.

His character is a guy who has had a very rough past from growing up in a number of foster homes, to getting adopted by an abusive family, to having criminal activity stealing bikes. He is grappling with how he should carry forward and move on to become a better person, and Chon just gave us an amazing performance. There’s really no other way to put it. You really felt like this was all happening, and when the conflict of him potentially being deported arises in the film, Chon’s performance gets even better as we see his tensions go to another level and also see his relationship with Alicia Vikander’s character and her daughter start to rapidly change. All in all, I’m shocked that Chon didn’t get more buzz when it came to getting a Best Actor nomination last year because he was playing a character that doesn’t always make the right choices, but he still made us root for him as we saw that he was trying his best thanks to Chon’s dedication and that is worthy of some awards consideration, no doubt.

Justin Chon’s performance was excellent, but Alicia Vikander might’ve had the best as she was extremely good as Antonio’s girlfriend, Kathy, who is just trying to keep their family together. Both of their performances were very heavy, there were lots of heightened emotions at play, and their chemistry was off the charts. In those more dramatic scenes though, Vikander absolutely crushed it, and while writing this, I can think of at least five scenes off the top of my head that could’ve been used for her “Oscar clip” had she been nominated. Similar to Chon, I don’t know how she didn’t even get talked about, because I’d put her performance in this right up with her Academy-Award winning performance she gave in Tom Hooper’s 2015 romantic drama, The Danish Girl.

Aside from those big things, there was still a lot to like about Blue Bayou. For starters, I absolutely loved the cinematography in this movie. It was shot on 16 mm and it gives it a very homemade feel. There were also a lot of scenes that used natural lighting really beautifully. Also, I was blown away by the young Sydney Kowalske’s performance as the little girl Jessie, and I also enjoyed Mark O’Brien’s performance mainly because of his solid southern accent. In conclusion, the movie had a really strong resonant message about choosing your family and choosing to give yourself to others and they hit the political message they were going for right out of the park if you ask me. Don’t believe me? Just wait until you see the very emotional ending that provided a massive gut punch and almost moved me to tears.

THE BAD

There is no denying that this is a quality film. However, I did have a few complaints about the film. One is that it is definitely a little melodramatic, but the bigger one is that it is just really heavy-handed. Yes, the performances are great and the film deals with a heavy subject matter, but there are just some moments where the movie was a little too direct in its messaging I thought. Also, in some of the more dramatic moments, the music sort of swells as it is really really loud, and I just thought that was all a little bit too much.

The heavy-handedness I brought up definitely played a big part in the second half of the film, and I don’t know, I also just felt like the movie got a tad lost in some of the side conflicts because I really thought the central story of a man trying to keep his family together was good enough. One of those side conflicts dealt with the clear antagonist that was Emory Cohen’s asshole police officer character. Cohen had a solid performance, but I just didn’t think we needed that subplot there because the film as a whole already had its big antagonist, that being the U.S. immigration system as a whole.

THE VERDICT

Written, directed, and starring Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is an incredibly moving, well-acted story of a Korean man, Antonio LeBlanc, who was adopted and raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou but is facing deportation from the only country he has ever called home.

I’m still shocked how this film didn’t get enough love when it came to last year’s awards season because it had great performances, especially from Alicia Vikander, powerful messaging, and just how it was able to hit you right in the feels. That’s in the past though, so if you want to give this film the love and notoriety it so rightfully deserves, go check it out now on the HBO Max streaming service!