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When we’re young, we have plans and expectations for our lives—for our career, our family life, our free time. But in East Bay, a middle-aged man looks back on this 20s and 30s and realizes that nothing has turned out the way he expected.
East Bay searches for meaning in life with aspiring filmmaker Jack Lee (Daniel Yoon). Jack’s life has been one disappointment after another—and when he discovers on his 39th birthday that his girlfriend is pregnant with another man’s child, he feels like his entire life has been a failure. He always dreamed of having a happy, successful life as a way of repaying his immigrant parents for their sacrifices. Instead, he feels like a bitter middle-aged loser. So he sets out to make a documentary that will give him the answers he’s been seeking.
After moving in with his coworkers, whose lives seem even more pointless and depressing than his own, Jack becomes determined to find some kind of purpose in life—some reason to make his parents proud of their decision to leave their lives in Korea and start over in a new country. Between regular pickup hockey games, strange hallucinations, and boring evenings at home with the guys, he interviews the people around him about their spiritual beliefs, searching for some kind of meaning. What he finds, however, is that no one really knows what they’re talking about—and they’re mostly just making it up as they go.
All of the characters here are messy and insecure—all searching for something, though they’re not sure what. Their rambling interview answers rarely make much sense—to the point that Jack only seems to become more confused. And while it’s supposed to be funny, it mostly just feels muddled and hopeless.
As Jack and his friends struggle to understand the point of it all, though, each one comes to some important realizations. And though so much of the film feels hazy and rambling and even a little sad—and its overall message is still rather indistinct—it does offer a few insights into life and the never-ending quest for happiness and success.
East Bay is often a frustrating film—a head-scratching exploration of the meaning of life through indie films, hallucinations, and hockey games. It’s the kind of film that tries to be profound but ends up feeling strange and messy and just generally perplexing.
You can follow Jack on his quest when East Bay arrives in select theaters on May 10, 2024—or watch it on demand starting on May 31, 2024.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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