There’s a scene in “K-Pops” when you get a sense for why Anderson .Paak thought he might make a good movie director, taking his expected place behind a drum kit as B.J., an expat in Korea hired to play as part of the backing band on the music competition show “Wild Card,” hyping everyone up around him while controlling the tempo and getting all involved to raise their game. With a million watt smile, he could know as well he could probably acquit himself as a movie star as well and while his character in his feature debut might suffer from having too much confidence as he strives towards a career as a top-shelf producer, his energetic debut feature is winning for all the same reasons.
When you’re about to see a show, Paak starts out “K-Pops” with a countdown as it finds BJ in Los Angeles happily playing at Cash Bar in Koreatown, a juke joint unlikely to be frequented by music execs but he’s content to play for whoever has come to dance at night while spending his days working on an album. His mom (Yvette Nicole Brown) is a regular attendee and when he randomly brings up Yeji (Jee Young Han) to the stage to sing one night, he couldn’t know that it’s the start of a long-term relationship, ultimately ending with her moving back to Korea as he struggles with getting his career off the ground. Opportunity knocks when Cash (Jonnie “Deadfounded” Park) learns that his aunt Diamond, the host of “Wild Card,” is hiring and a trip to Seoul may enable B.J. to get his music in the hands of a contestant named Kang, who seems primed for K-Pop stardom and could be swayed to hire him as a producer.
It’s an early sign that .Paak’s skills will translate from keeping audiences entertained on a stage to the screen when he is able to speed through the set-up, deploying some animation that ends up having a poignant double meaning to illustrate his relationship with Yeji and with co-writer Khalid Amazan, the reality competition show is both a means to an end for B.J. and the narrative itself when it mainly serves to introduce him to Tae Young (Soul Rasheed), one of the performers that he sees a little of himself in. You may not be surprised to learn there’s actually a lot of him in Tae Young if not for the fact he’s played by .Paak’s real-life son, but that Yeji turns out to be his mother, yet what is refreshing is that there’s no long pause when for dramatic effect when B.J. asks if the kid is his or any hesitation to take him under his wing upon learning that he is, a completely credible element to latch onto in the unbelievable scenario when it’s clear B.J. takes everything in stride, with his Cheshire Cat grin undimmed throughout.
Attitude counts for a lot in “K-Pops” where it becomes no wonder why B.J.’s nickname is “Breezy,” and the film benefits from keeping things upbeat, but Paak and Amazan are smart enough to consider a character who can be overinvested in having a good time and woefully unprepared for anything that doesn’t come easily. .Paak is more than game to poke fun at someone who believes himself to be a pop superstar before he’s anywhere near being one, but in his multi-hyphenate role, he’s perceptive in other ways when the relationship with Tae Young can expose his shifting priorities, unlikely to ever be all that responsible a parent when he and his son look to be the same age, but starts to see it as an opportunity to grow together when he looks at everything so positively.
There are a few moments where “K-Pops” shows a little sweat. It can feel like an obligation to return to “Wild Card” when the competition has little utility but to move the plot forward and when the film really does have the electric feel of a live concert, the montages that seem to take the place of guitar or drum solos during a jam can occasionally become slightly exhausting. However, as much as the film can lean on a formulaic structure, .Paak’s instincts lead him to break away from it any time things need to be shaken up and although it may seem unnecessary to include performances from Earth, Wind and Fire and Kirk Franklin, they serve a crucial role in the fun the film delivers and ultimately a larger purpose when seen as part of an autobiographical lens of the person the artist has become. Many films stress the idea of being true to yourself as a theme, but “K-Pops” emphatically expresses it as a part of its storytelling and is all the more exciting for it.
“K-Pops” does not have U.S. distribution.