Catfish in Black Bean Sauce

Most movie posters feature a pithy phrase meant to pique the interest of passers-by. Catfish in Black Bean Sauce's entry -- "Raised by an African-American couple, a Vietnamese brother and sister are reunited with their birth mother" -- reads more like the description on the back of a Blockbuster rental. And that's actually as good a plot summation as I could write without getting into all the other wackiness that comes with it. Despite all the "hilarity," though, the film itself is about as exciting as the blurb. Look for it at Blockbuster soon.

Although it features an ensemble of likable characters who are dealing with real (enough) issues, Catfish is cluttered. That's not to say that writer/director/star Chi Muoi Lo doesn't have his heart in the right place. But when a potentially thought-provoking meditation on family and racial identity tosses in a sexually confused cross-dresser-dating roommate, an opera-singing brother-in-law, and a blind talking cat, the movie gets muddled. And it doesn't help that Chi's character Wayne is engaged to a black woman (Love and Basketball's Sanaa Lathan), then he isn't, then he is again. This a well-intentioned debut -- just not very well-thought-out.

-- Mike Miliard