As one of the first films to be set within the Filipino-American community, with an almost exclusively Filipino and Filipino-American cast and director, The Debut has something to prove. But its demonstration that a film can be simultaneously groundbreaking and familiar likely transcends its original intentions. The Debut stars Dante Basco (one of four members of the Basco acting clan featured here) as a high-school senior who aspires to attend Cal Arts and become an animator. His family has other plans, particularly his postman father (veteran Filipino leading man Tirso Cruz III), who is determined that his son will be a doctor. That's the familiar part, and as the main plot, it plays out exactly as expected. Fortunately, plot isn't the only game here. Much of The Debut unfolds against the backdrop of Basco's sister's debutante ball, a setting that allows first-time director/co-writer Gene Cajayon to feature a broad cross-section of Filipino-American life. As Basco mopes around the celebration, he encounters everyone from the overbearing grandfather whose own disappointment with his son has been passed down through the generations to a colorful aunt's white husband, who seems to know more about Filipino culture than most of the other attendees, and has no qualms about sharing his knowledge. Cajayon's film succeeds best when it captures the intersections between different strata of Filipino-American culture, particularly during Basco's conflict with a gun-toting cousin who accuses him of selling out his Filipino heritage, while speaking in a style of English inherited from Ice Cube albums. As Basco reluctantly brings his white friends into the event, he's forced to see that there are options besides the absolutes of American assimilation or Filipino immersion. That conflict is far richer than the exceedingly familiar one that ostensibly drives the film. But even with this and other lapses into formula, The Debut gets by on its acuity and a winning cast, both of which, with any luck, will make return engagements in films made possible by the territory cleared here.