Blue Bayou was a film I knew nothing about three days before my viewing and one I have been incredibly excited about since. I love a well-crafted, heavy drama, and this film told me, after watching the first 45 seconds of the trailer, that this was something that I would see opening weekend. The Rotten Tomatoes scores enhanced my excitement about the movie (73%, 96%).

I read reviews on the Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper websites and a dozen or so quick audience reviews. The Ebert and Roeper reviews scored the movie as good but not great. All audience reviews were positive; more than half said this poignant story would have you crying by the end. As the film approached its finish line, I was not as emotionally involved as I envisioned that I would be. However, in the film’s final sequence before its end credits, I felt highly invested in each of the film’s four primary characters. Ironically, outside of human emotion, I thought the ending was either unbelievable in its premise or unbelievable in the sense that what happened could happen. I won’t give away anything. I prefer to leave my understanding of the ending to be ambiguous. If I research it, I will be disappointed either way.

Blue Bayou centers around the story of Antonio LeBlanc (Chon – Twilight, Coming Home Again), a New Orleans tattoo artist. While of Korean descent, Antonio (as he tells an interviewer at a job interview) received his name when an American family adopted him. Antonio is happily married to Kathy (Vikander – Ex Machina, The Danish Girl). The couple is expecting their first daughter together. Kathy has a seven-year-old daughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), from a previous relationship with Ace (Mark O’Brien – Marriage Story, The Front Runner). Ace is a local police officer who has been out of the picture for quite some time and is now looking to rekindle his relationship with Jessie. We only learn a little of his backstory, but we know that a court order states when he can and cannot see his daughter. It’s something that he doesn’t agree with nor always abide by. We learn early on that we have our antagonist. Jessie, instead, calls Antonio “Dad.” Ace is okay with this. He admits to his past failures and abandoning Kathy and Jessie. He’s working hard to get back into Jessie’s life. We are sure that there will be strife to come.

Things become heated between Antonio and Ace’s racist partner Denny (Emory Cohen – Brooklyn, The Gambler) at a local grocery store one evening. Denny seems to have more of a problem with Antonio raising Jessie than Ace does himself. Tensions raise. Heated words turn to a physical confrontation, with Antonio and Denny throwing punches at one another. Antonio is arrested. However, rather than being released after a few hours in the local jail, he is transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The purpose of ICE is to protect America from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. It is discovered that his adoption in the 1980s was never formalized in America. On top of that, as we learn in the same job interview that starts the movie, we also learn that Antonio has spent time in prison for two felony charges of motorcycle theft. But as he tells the interviewer, these crimes were non-violent and occurred long ago in his past. A judge orders his deportation.

The remainder of the movie shows Antonio and Kathy frantically trying to do whatever they can to prevent deportation. Neither can believe that a technicality that occurred when Antiono was just a baby, which he was unaware of, could send him out of the only country he knew.

While not the feel-good movie of the year, Blue Bayou is full of hope from start to finish. Antonio’s love for Kathy and Jessie is unmatched. Antonio is an honest man doing an honest job to better his life and family. The past he’s trying to escape from slowly reveals itself to us and others in the film. He’s a likable character for whom we cheer. We never really feel he’s genuinely in danger of getting deported. The reasons for his deportation seem too unfathomable to be real. Everything is going to turn out okay, right?

What I liked most about Blue Bayou was its originality. In a time when I crave freshness, Chon’s film did that and so much more. As a director, Chon brought us directly into Antonio’s gritty New Orleans life. As an actor, Chon had us rooting for him as he navigated the only world he’s ever known that is suddenly about to turn its back on him. His wife and daughter adore him, and he is a productive member of society. However, through the film’s slow revelation, we see he has no other reputable people who can vouch for him. It’s almost like the world outside his life with Kathy, and Jessie is to secure the life he cherishes with these two people.

Blue Bayou is the best movie I’ve seen in 2021. In fact, with apologies to Promising Young Woman and News of the World, it’s a better-made movie than anything released in 2020. I’ve looked at the early Oscar predictions for this year to see if the film or Chon (as a lead actor or director) would appear on any list. I was surprised that I didn’t find anything. As Blue Bayou stretches its way into local theaters, its brilliance will be appreciated by a wider audience. This may be too quiet of a movie, especially when people continue to stay away from theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Blue Bayou is not a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen. You’ll receive the same rewarding experience from your family room couch as you would at your local cinema.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 10/10
Acting 9.5/10 – top-notch performances from Chon and Vikander, along with a breakout performance by young Sydney Kowalske, who continues a recent trend of excellent young actors
Screenplay 9/10
Directing  9.5/10 – this was one heck of an effort
Cinematography 9.5/10 – gritty, shaky cameras felt like we were side by side with each of our characters the whole time
Sound 8.5/10 – I didn’t love the score in general, though Kathy’s impromptu singing at Parker’s family party served an essential purpose and was well done
Hook and Reel 10/10 – invested from opening to closing credits
Universal Relevance 10/10 – this made me sad
94%

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