Mai's America

At once an intimate portrait of a guileless Vietnamese high school exchange student from Hanoi, and an understated exposé of the American Dream, filmmaker Marlo Poras's award-winning Mai's America opens with the eponymous heroine being dropped into the Faulkneresque world of the Deep South--Biloxi, Mississippi, to be exact--where she first lands in a Pentecostal family of self-proclaimed “rednecks.” Despite her eagerness to please, Mai ends up isolated from her unresponsive and depressed host family (although she is befriended by the vibrant Chris [a.k.a. “Christy”], a gospel-singing, gay transvestite whom she meets at a nightclub and considers asking to the school prom), and is eventually transferred to the equally improbable home of a young black Baptist couple. Her experiences with these families, school friends, and a particular high school teacher who takes Mai under her wing, offer fascinating lessons on race relations in melting pot America. Through discussions with other Vietnamese exchange students and immigrants, Mai learns to confront her own cultural bias toward Americans, which stems both from the legacy of the Vietnam War and stereotypical views about America as a land of freedom and opportunity. Mai is anxious to fulfill her father's wish (another cultural expectation) that she attend college in America, but the cost of tuition--too steep despite her family's solid middle-class background--prove to be a barrier, and Mai finally ends up in Detroit eking out a living as a pedicurist in a beauty salon. Richer in plot, character, and setting than most feature films, this intellectually satisfying and occasionally emotional film is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (A. Cantú)