‘Kween’ offers an affecting look at the Cambodian American experience in Lowell

LOWELL – In the very first line of “Kween,” Vichet Chum’s imperfect but affecting family drama, we hear the name of Jack Kerouac, author of “On the Road,” best-known chronicler of the Beat Generation and also one of its creators.

What’s telling is that the person invoking Lowell’s favorite son is a 16-year-old Cambodian-American named Soma, played by Pichanny Som.

“I’ve been thinking of calling myself Khmer Kerouac,” she says cockily, then launches into a lengthy, rhyming rap — which she quickly posts on TikTok — that laments the fact that her father has been deported.