Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. Violence. Organized crime. Pornography. Prostitutes, guns, beatdowns and SATs - these are the rigors of high school life for four overachieving Asian males in Southern California. Better Luck Tomorrow is director Justin Lin's attempt to break the ethnic stereotype of the straight-laced Asian so prevalent in current popular culture.

Ben, Vince, Han, and Derek are doing what Asian males in high school do. Getting perfect SAT scores, joining every academic club on campus, working, volunteering and doing community service...things that look good on a college application. Their obsessiveness soon spills over into violence, however, when they start taking bigger and bigger risks with the scams they are running.

It starts simply enough: selling cheat sheets to needy students leads to stealing school equipment which leads to drug dealing. The transition to violence is a slow one that seems natural. Writer /director Lin lulls us into visions of academic regularity, so that when terrible acts happen on the screen, we feel it in a very visceral way, and he does so in a way that nearly takes the idea of race out of the picture.

Parry Shen is a fantastic actor who brings real vunerability to Ben, the most reluctant member of the group. One of the great things about low budget filmmaking is the rawness of the acting that you can illicit with a talented young cast. Props as well to Lin's fantastic shot composition and editing. The film is about as low budget as you can get, but with Lin's graceful hand, it honestly feels like a big budget Hollywood film. Of course, that's helped along by the great writing, which manages to balance that fine line between teen flick and Tarentino bloodbath.

Better Luck Tomorrow is a fantastic debut from a richly talented director and a fine cast. It crosses racial boundaries with a violent streak of school academics that leaves you wanting more.