Gook

Echoes of early Spike Lee's early films abound here as writer/director Justin Chon strives to do the right thing in this sophomore outing set against the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Chon also stars as one of two Korean-American brothers running a shoe shop in the Paramount district that's riven with racial tensions. While Chon's Eli focuses on the business, brother Daniel (David So) has hopes of becoming a singer. But their friendship with an 11-year-old black orphan (Simone Baker) incurs the wrath of her seething sibling (Curtiss Cook Jr), who blames the duo for the death of his mother in a robbery at their store. Flitting between slacker banter and socio-political exposition, Chon's screenplay lacks the nuance of Ante Cheng's occasionally glassy monochrome visuals. But its heart is in the right place, even as the drift towards a mawkish dénouement contrasts starkly with the flashes of violence and kitschy set pieces like the dance routine to Hall and Oates hit Maneater.