DÌDI

August 2, 2024

dìdi, izaac wang, joan chen, sean wang, shirley chen

Words by JANE CROWTHER


In 2008 Fremont, teen Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) is living his summer before he starts high school in a liminal space; vacillating between friendship groups, loathing/loving his older sister, desperate/terrified to have his first kiss, rejecting his heritage but ultimately comforted by it. As he negotiates his world via MySpace, his flip phone and house parties, Chris tries on identities. He’s ‘Dìdi’ at home to his mother and grandma, ‘Wang Wang’ who ‘Wu-tangs’ his spliffs to his bros, a boy who likes chick-flicks to the object of his affection, ‘Asian Chris’ to a skate group he attempts to befriend as a videographer and all manner of hateful names to his screaming sis who’s about to leave home for college. All he really wants from his summer is for his mum to stop being ‘so Asian’ and his crush, Madi (Mahaela Park), to be his girl. But inopportune erections, friendship wipeouts and drunkenness are going to cause acute embarrassment and failure…

dìdi, izaac wang, joan chen, sean wang, shirley chen
Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures LLC © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Developed by writer/director Sean Wang as part of the Sundance Institute film programme and winner of the audience award at this year’s festival, Dìdi is a semi-autobiographical confection loaded with equal parts nostalgia and cringe. Based on Wang’s own upbringing (his real-life grandmother plays Dìdi’s), it’s a study of teenage awkwardness through a lens of compassion that evokes comparisons with Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade. But it’s also a film that explores the immigrant experience in America via Chris’ interactions with his mom (played with beautiful subtly by Joan Chen). A woman bringing her children up alone with a judgey mother-in-law and broken dreams of her own, Mrs Wang reacts to everyday racism where Chris does not, eats her Big Mac with a knife and fork despite his admonishments and delivers a heartfelt, tender affirmation of him at his lowest point that recalls the tear-inducing speech from father to son in Call Me By Your Name. In this way, Wang’s film absolutely sings to those who will recognise the signifiers of Chris’ specific time and place (Livestrong wristbands, indigo braces, AOL, watching Superbad at pool parties) but will also chime with parents who have endured the cruelties of bratty teens in any era. Equally, the visceral feeling of self-consciousness and angst as an adolescent is one that is (painfully) universal.

dìdi, izaac wang, joan chen, sean wang, shirley chen
Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / Talking Fish Pictures LLC © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Sweet and salty in equal measure, Wang’s expertly curated time-capsule serves as a poignant reminder to parents and children alike that everyone of every generation is simply trying their best to grow into their own approximation of a decent adult. And that that journey is a life-long one.

dìdi, izaac wang, joan chen, sean wang, shirley chen
Credit: Courtesy of Iris Lee / Talking Fish Pictures, LLC. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

Dìdi is in cinemas now

TRENDING

Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, Julia Roberts, Luca Guadagnino, Michael Stuhlbarg

AFTER THE HUNT

Luca Guadagnino’s latest is about cancel culture writ large – its opening titles recall Woody Allen and a bar jukebox plays

Al Pacino, Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Dead Man’s Wire, Gus Van Sant

DEAD MAN’S WIRE

There’s a nice nod to Dog Day Afternoon in casting Al Pacino in this real-life hostage negotiation story of the little man breaking

BUY

You may also like…

Benny Safdie, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, The Smashing Machine

EMILY BLUNT

Dawn Staples, played with a perma-tan and acrylic nails by Emily Blunt. The bond between Johnson and Blunt is also integral to the project

christopher abbott, julia garner, leigh whannell, matilda firth, wolf man

WOLF MAN

Words by JANE CROWTHERPhotographs by NICOLA DOVE Leigh Whannell aced updating The Invisible Man in 2020 by making it a horror about domestic abuse and gaslighting, and he’s on the money again with another smart reinterpretation of a Universal classic monster. This time he takes the Lon Chaney jr horror and places it in 1995 Oregon