No Turning Back

If I have anything to give readers, let it be a naive candor. The elephant in the room is that USC student films have a reputation for being extremely well-made, but ultimately kind of ‘meh’ on the entertainment scale. A pleasant surprise-exception was this evening’s BLOOD DEBTS, which was part of the late-night crime shorts program, NO TURNING BACK, shown at the Laemmle. The story was a simple one, but skillfully crafted, well-acted, and cleverly relevant to the Asian American experience.

I’d also like to plug is BOOKIE, which was written/directed and produced by my VC buddies Bao Tran and Michael Velasquez, respectively. Set in a mid-sixties Seattle nightclub, it is a gorgeously lush black and white piece. The tension seething beneath the surface of the festive locale is artfully brought into view by the intensity of some great R&B performances.

Oh, and “Cola” from the BACARDI AND COLA ads is in it.

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