Coming of age films are a staple in cinema, but rare is a great depiction of growing up on the internet, chatting with friends, and learning about the world through just a small screen. Dìdi is one of those rare films that remembers that pivotal era, which is why it’s often likened to Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, but Sean Wang depicts a more angsty than anxious Asian American kid with a mother and a grandmother less able to relate to the wider Western town they live in, and with nothing he wants to do but to skate, shoot skating, and try to fit in with people he thinks are cool. It’s both funny and self-critical, as if Wang was looking back to remember the times he screwed up, but it’s also just comforting to watch him own up to who he really is, even if it doesn’t garner the exact response he’s been hoping for. It’s also precisely why Dìdi found its audience.
"Dìdi is a standard issue, vignette-driven coming-of-ager that excels as an amusing observational diary while foundering as an engaging piece of narrative drama."
— David Jenkins
"It recreates the sensation of drowning in your own hormone-churned emotions so vividly that the film would be difficult to watch if its very existence didn’t serve as a kind of pressure valve."
— Alison Willmore
In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can't teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
August 2008. Just before high school begins, 13-year-old Taiwanese American Chris Wang learns what the rest of his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
I like the way it shifts aspect ratios and video quality. This technique has been used in plenty of period films, but it really makes me feel nostalgic to see the 2000s approach, with memories marked with digital noise, smudged lenses, and weird camera angles that’s so reminiscent of YouTube at its infancy.
Maybe keep stories of the dead squirrel only for you and your friends, my dude.
DGA
1 nomination
Spirit Awards
2 wins, 2 nominations
Sundance
2 wins
Nat. Board of Review
1 win
The cringe moments are palpable. It’s a realistic and bittersweet portrayal of growing up as a millennial Asian American.