there’s enormous heart behind Justin Chon’s drama, and wrenching performances full of feeling from the writer-director and his co-star Alicia Vikander; "Blue Bayou" sometimes lacks nuance, it's telling a story that needs to be heard
stunning and moving; Though it’s a drama about navigating a complicated legal system, it’s never a dull film, as Chon expertly balances genuinely suspenseful action sequences and scenes of heart-rending tenderness that make his characters as real to
Justin Chon's film is stylistically overwrought and narratively overstuffed, but rests on his affecting performance as a New Orleans Korean-American facing deportation
both a passionate expose of a serious injustice and a big emotional ride that is also prepared to take some interesting risks in its journey towards a old-school tear-jerker finale
artless, unconversant with nuance or subtlety and fond of hitting every nail right on the head, Blue Bayou nonetheless gets to the nitty-gritty and some of the most vexing emotional issues surrounding immigration
"Blue Bayou" is a timely but tediously overwrought drama about a nakedly racist part of America's immigration crisis; Blue Bayou's overwrought narrative undermines its important message
by Pat Brown [Slant Magazine ]
