Blast Beat (2020) [บรรยายไทย]

The boys don’t fit into the suburbs. Their classmates seem unable to find South America on the map, making it doubly insulting when bullies heckle them with, “Yo quiero Taco Bell.” (Playing Carly, Mateo Arias is so hirsute, he’s hard to accept as a senior.) Adding to the disorientation, the lovely Diane Guerrero plays his mother, but looks young enough to be his sister. At least the wobbles in the casting add to Arango’s driving theme of displacement for two young men already in the liminal space of last-stage adolescence. Carly and Mateo feel old enough to do anything except decide where to live. While their father Ernesto (Wilmer Valderrama) insists Georgia is the right move for their future, Arango is unconvinced, and angles “Blast Beat” as a side-eye to the assumption that every immigrant should be grateful to live in the States.




 

The film’s sincerity nearly balances its wonky plotting. Arango observes that America divides people into stereotypes of “good” and “bad” immigrants. Good immigrants, like Carly, are bright scholars who can contribute to the country. (Carly dreams of becoming a NASA engineer.) Bad immigrants, like aimless, artistic Mateo, are less welcome. No wonder the sullen kid thinks the American Dream feels more like a hangover.