Kelly Loves Tony

The scenario is familiar from many movies and TV episodes. In a tough neighborhood in Oakland, Kelly, a Laotian immigrant, loves Tony, a former gangbanger. Things happen fast: she gets pregnant, they get engaged, and Tony, precariously off the streets, has got a court date coming up to determine whether he will be deported back to Laos. Also, Kelly has just graduated from high school and has gotten a video camera as a present.

This is no movie, though -- this is real life, a year and a half of the couple's existence together recorded by Kelly's camera in a documentary directed (what that entails is unclear) by Emmy winner Spencer Nakasako. It's a chronicle of intimate chaos and dignified reflection edited into a gripping, heartfelt, largely uncompromising hour. The stereotypes of the inner city -- crack, drive-bys, early death -- fade before common complaints about the human condition. Tony's criminal past isn't as much of a problem as his family, who impose on his fiancée the onus of tradition -- ritual baths and virtual servitude. Neither, as a counselor points out, is Tony "school people"; he finds it hard to understand why Kelly wants to go to college rather than stay home and cook and care for the kid. Since this is reality, there's no resolution, only an affirmation of persistence, folly, and love.

-- Peter Keough