dvdjamm
All Star
A contemporary retelling of Spike Lee’s seminal Do the Right Thing, Hypebeasts is a short film exploring race and belonging as conflict sparks between sneakerheads waiting in line for the latest in footwear.
From the clash between the African-American and Italian communities in a Brooklyn summer in the late 80s, we’re taken to present-day California the night before the release of a hyped new sneaker at Hypebeasts. Friends Danny (Jake Choi), Ronny (Michael Rosete) and Ronny’s sister Justine (played by director Jess dela Merced) are on their way to the store after getting some food when they notice, instead of a name, an anti-Asian racial slur pencilled on their receipt. Justine wants to go back, but the boys urge her to forget about it. Later, they see the employees responsible – who are African-American – cutting the line ahead of them, and Justine decides to confront them. Tension between the two groups quickly spreads to the rest of the line, and mayhem ensues.
Inspired by a real-life incident of anti-Asian racism that happened in Southern California back in 2011 similar to that depicted in the film, the connection between Hypebeasts and Do the Right Thing is no coincidence: Filipino-American director Jess dela Merced, granted a Spike Lee Fellowship in 2012, had Lee himself mentor the short, and much like Lee she is fully involved in her project, writing, directing, and starring in one of the main roles (Justine). The choice of inspiration befits a nuanced, complex look at what makes people see others as little more than a caricature of a group they may or may not even belong to. Like its predecessor, the short relishes in side conversations, background characters that don’t ever feel irrelevant and showing more than telling. The racism is never excused, but it is, in a way, explained, and all the characters engage in it to some extent. Sneakers become codified with blackness and our three Asian-American characters are made to feel as if they can’t be a part of this culture, so they fight back – most notably, with boba tea.
Hypebeasts succeeds at taking the best lessons from Lee’s cult hit, applying the same multi-sided, complicated, and unapologetically violent lens on racism, but also solving a conflict that was left unaddressed in the earlier film: that between siblings Mookie and Jade, here re-interpreted through Ronny and Justine. Mookie’s sexism is embodied in Jade, whom he treats dismissively and actually forbids from speaking to another man. Ronny, too, is unwilling to have his sister’s back when she insists on doing something about the racism they experienced. He’s visibly conflicted, but brushes off her anger in favour of the coveted sneakers. Ultimately, however, he chooses Justine and admits she was right all along.
Unfortunately, much like its muse, Hypebeasts doesn’t end on a fulfilling note, but that makes it, potentially, all the more a reflection of its time. And that in itself might make it unappealing to certain (less current) audiences, who might see pretension in the attention to slang, or the colour-coded displays of urban fashion and gadgets. For now, it lacks the nostalgia that makes Do the Right Thing such an aesthetic feast.
