SMART, TROUBLED IN 'BETTER LUCK'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

SUBURBAN DELINQUENT drama gets a scintillating rethink in ``Better Luck Tomorrow.'' This time, the bored, neglected, privileged teen criminals are Orange County Asian-Americans, many of them highly motivated academic achievers who - when not selling cheat sheets or drugs, pulling guns at pool parties or inching toward inevitable homicide - are likely to be found cleaning trash off beaches or serving as volunteer translators at free clinics.

Directed by Justin Lin and written by Lin, Ernesto M. Foronda and Fabian Marquez, this smartly observed ensemble film certainly recognizes the absurd humor in such contradictory behavior. But like the way ethnicity does and does not inform the characters' behavior, the laughs, terror and suspense these kids generate comes from a completely natural place. Certain stereotypes are referenced, others are exploded (and that, much to the film's credit, has alarmed some viewers who draw comfort from the fantasy of a model minority). But the movie so credibly taps into the confusing emotions of adolescence that nothing these kids do ever seems less than spontaneous and uniquely individual. They're the most believable teenagers American cinema has brought forth in years.

The young cast, of course, is largely responsible for the film's success. Parry Shen plays narrator Ben Manibag, as obsessed with building the perfect Ivy League college application as he is with basketball ... and, increasingly, with cheerleader/study partner Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung). Raised by a white family (and yes, her last name has a certain resonance; the boys at school are convinced that she's a porn star on the side), Stephanie is dating the arrogant, private-school-attending Steve Choe (John Cho), whose condescending attempts at amity only make Ben resent him more.

As for Ben's real buds, well, with friends like these ...

Virgil (Jason Tobin) has brains but also too much of a goofball gene to marshal them effectively. This drives his surly, cool-posing cousin Han (Sung Kang) nuts on a regular basis, and his main pleasure in life seems to come from trying to beat sense into Virgil.

Completing this gang of four is Daric Loo (Roger Fan). Even more of a scholastic miracle than Ben, Daric heads just about every extracurricular club on campus. He's also the brains behind the increasingly daring and dangerous criminal enterprises that gradually lift the crew from laughed-at nerd status to serious gangsta repute.

All while they cram feverishly to win the big Academic Decathlon competition in Las Vegas. With all the drugs and partying and rumbling required to sustain the outlaw image, at one point Ben understandably complains, ``I couldn't even start my homework until 1 a.m.''

The film doesn't provide much help for those wanting neat reasons as to why these gifted, above-middle-class kids go bad. References are made to the fact their good grades provide cover for getting away with anything, so why not? (An earlier version of the film, screened at the Sundance Film Festival, reportedly had a more mercenary, sociopathic tone; in this one, Ben's voice-over is tinged with thoughtfulness, guilt and regret. Whether that represents commercial cop-out or credible character complexity is anyone's call).

The director also chose never to show anybody's parents, or other adult authority figures for that matter. The metaphoric reasons for that are obvious, and it nicely eliminates the rote generation-gap confrontations that are the bane of the teen genre. All the same, it's a nagging narrative affectation in an otherwise unmannered story.

As for Lin's filmmaking flourishes, while sometimes showy, they tend to complement the plot points and emotional states they're applied to. I was especially impressed by the consistent way he got gray skies over the gated communities and computer superstore parking lots where much of this so, so So Cal story unfolds. Whatever goes bad in ``Better Luck,'' these kids are ruthlessly directed toward a brighter tomorrow. And the ones who survive will get there by book or by crook.

BETTER LUCK TOMORROW - Three and one half stars

(R: violence, drug use, sex, nudity, language)

Starring: Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, Karin Anna Cheung, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho.

Director: Justin Lin.

Running time: 1 hr. 38 min.

Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood; AMC Century 14, Century City; AMC 30 at the Block, Orange.

In a nutshell: Film about achievement-addled Asian-American teens turning to secret lives of crime boasts some of the most intriguing and realistic young characters U.S. cinema has seen in a long time.