Didi plus Short Takes on various other cinematic topics

More Teenage Trauma

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

                         Didi (Sean Wang)   rated R   93 min.

Here’s the trailer:

       (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

       activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: We’re back in 2008 in Fremont, CA (part of the San Francisco Bay Area, located between Oakland and San Jose, with a large immigrant population—mostly South Asian, but also East Asian as we’ll see here) where 13-year-od Chris Wang (Izaac Wang [no relation to the director]) is called “Didi” (“little brother” in Mandarin) by his family, but to his friends he often goes by “Wang Wang.”*  As a Taiwanese-American kid he lives with his mother, Chungsing Wang (Joan Chen), his slightly-older sister, Vivian Wang (Shirley Chen)—soon to be off to college at UC San Diego—and his grandmother, Nǎi Nai (Chang Li Hua; one of the principle subjects of Sean Wang’s Oscar-nominated Short Documentary called Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó [Grandma & Grandma, 2023]), who constantly hassles Didi’s Mom about the absence of Granny’s son, still working in Taiwan to help support this family (Didi and Vivian don’t get along all that well either).  Didi has aspirations of being a YouTube video influencer, so he makes silly shorts with his close friends Fahed Mahmood (Raul Dial) and Jimmy “Soup” Kim (Aaron Chang), but what really entices him on this early-years Internet is a girl, 14-year-old Madi (Mahaela Park), he’s smitten with.  They exchange texts, go on a date, he lies about movies he hasn’t seen, but when she suggests a game with him he admits he’s nervous (even after watching a video on how to kiss), which puts their possibly-budding relationship on hold.

*This may seem far-fetched, but when I look at Chris’ identities I can’t help but think of "Rocky Raccoon" (1968 The Beatles album [the “White Album”]) where the woman is characterized by “Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil / But everyone knew her as Nancy.”  Such a confusion!

 Then Didi and Mom have dinner with one of her friends and her academically-successful son, Max (Jayden Chiang), which just makes Didi feel all the more inadequate, so he tries to convince some slightly-older skateboarders—Donavan (Chiron Denk), Cory (Sunil Maurillo), and Nugget (Montay Boseman)—to be the “filmer” of their exploits which he attempts to do.  Then they take him to a party where he’s introduced to alcohol and marijuana, making him sick, which finally helps him reconcile with Vivian before she leaves.  However, when the skateboarders come to see his footage they find nothing to be impressed with (it’s pretty bad); Mom comes into the room only to be chastised by her son as these now-disappointed/failed-potential friends leave for new, beckoning concrete pastures.  Later, Didi’s approached by Max and his friend, Josh (Joziah Lagonoy), with the latter laughing at Didi over his failed date with Madi, so Didi hits him with his skateboard.  ⇒Things get worse as he has a heated argument with Mom, causing him to run away for the night.  When he returns she confides in him how she also earlier had conflicts with Vivian who ran away from home for 3 days when she was 14; she also says she’s had dreams of being a successful painter (no luck so far as she’s just been turned down by an upcoming exhibition), now sees her children as her real dream.  As the plot wraps up, Didi goes to his first day at high-school, tries to re-connect with Madi but she rejects him because of his attack on her friend Josh.  He waves to Fahed and Soup, signs up for a visual arts club, is picked up after school by Mom, whom he now feels more comfortable talking to.⇐

So What? I would never have assumed it, but this SF East Bay city near me, Fremont, is the setting for 2 marvelous films, released almost a year apart, about a place I’d assume those who don’t live nearby have never heard of (yet, it’s been chosen for the 5^th year in a row as America's Happiest City, based on emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, community and environment, so how about a rousing cheer of “Let’s go, Fremont!”).  First, there was Fremont (Babak Jaiali, 2023; 4 stars-review in our November 1, 2023 posting) about an Afghan refugee, Donya (Anaita Wali Zadi), among the ones the U.S. was able to fly out of Afghanistan before the Taliban shut the country down again (August 30, 2021); now she knows no one in her new home, was somewhat shunned before she left as well as now in Fremont for working as a translator to help American forces during our hostilities with those who fought to overthrow that country’s government, re-establish a brutal regime.  Following Fremont, we find ourselves with Didi as another immigrant in a strange land, trying his best to fit in although with little success within/beyond his immediate family.

 In addition, by pure coincidence, I see a dose of resonance of Didi with the current Disney/Pixar global blockbuster, Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann; 3 stars-review in our September 3, 2024 posting), in that there we’re also dealing with a 13-year-old trying to fit into a challenging new environment, buffeted by internal emotions (which we see personified within her mind), pushed by puberty into quarrels with her parents, although this animated feature gives us the dual views of what goes on inside of Riley’s consciousness as well as how she reacts to her actual surroundings, whereas in Didi we just see the results of the boy’s inner conflicts without any attempt to anthropomorphize what’s happening inside of his outer persona.  For me, the Fremont-based films (home to both of their directors as well) work better than Riley’s situation in San Francisco, but all of these narratives do share a geographic continuity, even though Didi would now be 39 in 2024 so if he were to meet either of these other protagonists I’ll bet he’d have more in common with Donya than teenager-Riley.

 One other parallel between Didi and Inside Out 2 is how both protagonists break away from their close friends to seek better connections with older, more popular kids, Riley with the high-school ice hockey girls, Didi with the skateboarder guys; especially how these narratives were surely developed in isolation I doubt there was any attempt on the part of either cluster of filmmakers to intentionally copy this plot device, but history—even fictional history—does have a way of repeating itself so that Didi’s actions in 2008 are reasonably repeated by Riley in 2024 (or whenever in that general timeframe her story takes place; may be only 2017 if we’re following the original’s supposed setting) as coming-of-age-stories likely have similar aspects, especially when the teens involved are facing the normal traumas of finding their way in an increasingly-challenging world where all they’d previously depended on is now up for rejection or reconsideration, each day with its new unknowns.  

 One thing Didi (or Riley for that matter … or, even us) didn’t assume he’d have to face was his mother cutting a fart, which she does while driving him home from a bus stop late one night.  He’s shocked it happened, somewhat repulsed (as if adults can’t have the same human characteristics he does), further surprised when Mom just laughs it off, acts like it smells OK to her.  It’s intimate explorations of the interpersonal interactions between teens and peers, kids and adults that are so well explored in this film, especially pulling no punches about how Chungsing has to absorb constant verbal abuse from her irritable mother-in-law, which doesn’t subside much until Grandma becomes sick toward the end of the story, allowing us to finally find some sympathy for her situation.  Didi isn’t as melodramatic, violent—or emotionally impactful—as the James Dean classic, Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955), but it’s just as honest about the frequent gulf between generations or within them as teens try to find ways to manifest some version of a self-defined, acceptable identity.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Didi won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (just as Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for documentary shorts at the 2023 South by Southwest Festival, also won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 AFI Fest), so we’ll see later how Didi might fare at the 2025 Oscars.  Following a limited domestic (U.S.-Canada) release on July 26, 2024 it opened wide on August 18, 2024, grew to 435 venues, now down to 87, taking in so far $4.7 million ($5 million globally), with a few still playing it near me (so you might be able to find it on a big screen if you like, but the still-surging new COVID-19 strains still keep me away); however, if you’re interested there’s always streaming where you can rent it for $19.99 at Apple TV+.  Clearly, the CCAL would certainly encourage you to consider it as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at an impressive high of 96%, the Metacritic average score is (quite healthy for them) 78%, which I find myself in easy agreement with, offering my 4 of 5 stars (normally the highest I'll go, except for the rare cinematic achievements worth 4½ or 5 stars).

 Certainly this coming-of-age-story isn’t as magnificent as the French New Wave classic The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), but, nevertheless, Didi is a marvelous exploration of the inner and outer traumas a budding teenager goes through (yet, like Inside Out 2, the protagonist here is likely going through puberty even though there’s no overt mention of some fundamental body-changes that occur during this time so I guess the R rating is for that party scene and some of the harsh language at the dinner table which gives Nǎi Nai something else to complain to Chungsing about), matching the main character’s attempts at successes with the harsh reality of how others frequently dismiss him for failures, all of which leads me to my standard review-closure-device of a Musical Metaphor; this time, after much deliberation, I’m going with The Beach Boys’ “When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)” (on their 1956 The Beach Boys Today album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EzEhW1VO9M (a sort of ragged video, so here’s the studio recording if you prefer that) because Didi’s not only immediately concerned with how he’s going to get through tomorrow, like any of us he’s likely wondering what the farther future holds for him (when I was 13 I had no concept that 10 years later I’d be married [seemed like a good idea at the time … but no!], halfway toward a Masters degree, a year from relocation of Texas to NYC [another idea that didn’t pan out too well]), so whatever manifests in the future for this little guy probably will come as a complete surprise for him (like with me), but maybe now he’ll have better support from his family in helping him get there.

                  

SHORT TAKES

             

 When searching for something to watch and review via streaming last weekend I was initially led to consider Breathe (Stefon Bristol; PG-13, 93 min.) by a rather positive review I read in my local San Francisco Chronicle (which I can no longer locate, but of the 13 to be found on Rotten Tomatoes I’ll give you this one from Assignment X’s Abbie Bernstein as it’s the most supportive one of that group, 1 of only 2 that are positive responses), so after seeing those miserable RT positives of a mere 15% (nothing yet on Metacritic which requires a minimum of 4 reviews, but here's the link if you’d like to check back later for a possible update) I dug a bit further, found that Didi’s now available for streaming, so I made a better choice; however, given that Breathe just happened to be on Showtime last Friday night I recorded it out of pure curiosity, then watched it later, found it to not be as horrible as those folks would indicate but not worthy of your view time nor mine for a true review.  

 It’s one of those apocalyptic sci-fi stories, set in 2039, where climate change has robbed Earth of most of its oxygen, all of its plants so in an underground bunker in the remains of NYC live scientist Darius (Common), his wife Maya (Jennifer Hudson—another reason I was intrigued enough to watch this movie, along with some other cast members) and daughter Zora (Quvenzhané Wallis) where he’s constructed some sort of oxygen-retrieval device along with a semblance of spacesuits to allow breathing for a short time out on the planet’s surface.  Sadly, he disappears one day, then some strangers (Milla Jovovich, Sam Worthington, Raúl Castillo) from a survival colony in Philadelphia show up claiming to be friends even though Maya’s not convinced.  From there things plod along until the end, so if I were actually reviewing this I’d probably make do with 2 stars, which would still put me way ahead of RT; if you somehow find the premise intriguing you can rent it from Apple TV+ for $5.99 (here’s the trailer; it was released to some theaters on April 26, 2024 but no domestic sales info, $239 thousand internationally), although I’ll give you the alternative of just listening to an unofficial Musical Metaphor, which I think must be Pink Floyd’s "Breathe" (1973’sThe Dark Side of the Moon album), with its surprisingly-appropriate lyrics such as “Breathe, breathe in the air / Don’t be afraid to care / Leave, but don’t leave me / Look around and choose your own ground.”  Truly, your time is best spent listening to that wondrous album (then listening again … and again).

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for you: (1) Most popular streaming services; (2) Theatrical releases streaming now; (3) IMDb's Fall movie picks; and (4) Variety's opinions of the Best Fall Festival Movies.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

         

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

        

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 2,679—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Share this post