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ARRIVING AT HOME TO OWN OR RENT TODAY ON DIGITAL!
ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY™ OCTOBER 29, 2024
Charming, cringy and heartbreaking in all the best ways, it's the best film of 2024, so far.
I was reticent going in that I would relate to this coming-of-age story of a high school bound Asian-American that takes place in 2008. When I was Chris's (or "Wang Wang" as his friends call him) age, it was the year 2000 - sociologically and technologically a much different world. I was already a senior in college by the time Wang Wang was about to enter High School. Much to my surprise, the tech and social media platforms adolescents used in 2008 were not at all different than what I had at my disposal in 2000, making it clear to me that 2009 became the transitory year where facebook, twitter and iPhone cameras started replacing AOL instant messenger and Sony Handycams.
It's through these mostly archaic forms of technology that the realest emotions of the film play out. As Wang Wang navigates changing social circles and budding relationships with females, he is glued to his computer, locked into AOL instant messenger as his primary tool for communication and expression. In his social exploits, Wang Wang oscillates between effortlessly charming and painfully awkward as he tries desperately to belong and be cool.
As the titular character, (Dìdi is a nickname his mother has for him) the young Izaac Wang delivers an astonishingly subtle and grounded performance that shapes the troubled and confused heart of the entire film. It's almost hard to believe that Wang is a working actor and not just a regular kid director Sean Wang discovered in a skatepark. There is something to appreciate about the trained actor who is able to mask the craft so wholeheartedly.
Writer/Director Sean Wang's touch for subtle realism, matched with director of photography Sam A. Davis's superb and sensitive camera work captures the essence of what it means to struggle with self-identity as a 13-14 year old. Never before has a film portrayed the messy challenges of a young males travails during puberty so realistically and without arbitrary quirkiness as this one. Clocking in at a cool 93 minutes, Dìdi is a staggeringly authentic, beautifully realized, instant coming-of-age classic!
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