Dìdi (c) Focus Features
Film: Dìdi (弟弟)
In Cinemas
Director Sean Wang had quite a week in January when he was nominated for an Oscar for his documentary short, Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó, about how his two grandmothers now live together for emotional and practical support, while his first feature film, Dìdi, a fictional version of Wang’s preteen years, won the U.S. Drama Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. And while Wang’s first full-length film contains many Sundance, indie coming-of-age tropes, Dìdi still feels fresh, especially when he applies his guerrilla style of filmmaking. Sean Wang’s stand-in (played winningly and with the most expressive face by Izaac Wang) goes by many names, including his legal American name Chris, his nickname Wang Wang which his friends call him and, most rarely, Dìdi, which is the Chinese term of endearment his mother Chungsing (Joan Chen) uses. It is the summer of 2008, the period between elementary and high school for Chris, and he seems lost. Although he hangs out in Fremont, California, with a small group of friends (mostly other immigrant kids) and makes the occasional YouTube video, he also attempts to find new friends, which starts off exciting, but always ends with frustration, stemming from (in his mind) his sheltered Taiwanese upbringing. This includes a lot of cringy interactions on MySpace, like flirting with his crush Madi (Mahaela Park), attempts to hang out with some older, cooler kids to film their skateboarding, his growing anger with his family’s otherness by constantly fighting with his college-bound sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) and his cruel, self-centered interaction with his mother, a former painter trying her best to raise her kids alone as their father works in Taiwan. Sean Wang doesn’t shy away from making Chris selfish and immature (he is 13), but somehow the audience is always on Chris’s side, as we’ve all been there (13), done that. But it is the honest and painful portrayal of Chris’s mother, in the capable hands of veteran actress Joan Chen, that gives the film its heart. Mostly speaking in Mandarin with just enough English to get by, Chen is able to convey the mixed emotions of the immigrant family experience with just the slow turn of her head. Dìdi is the perfect summer movie that captures both the feeling of endless days and of time quickly running out.
Film: Crossing
In Cinemas
The quote you’ll hear most that is attributed to Levan Akin’s new, excellent film, Crossing, is the observation that “Istanbul is a place where people come to disappear.” And this is certainly true at the start of the film as we follow Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired Georgian schoolteacher, who is in Istanbul looking for her transgender niece, Tekla (she was disowned by the family), after the death of Tekla’s mother. Lia, who doesn’t speak a word of Turkish, is determined to go by herself, but she reluctantly agrees to let Achi (Lucas Kankava), an aimless young man (and a habitual liar), travel with her as her protector and guide (at least he knows a little English). Parallel to their story is one involving a trans woman named Evrim (Deniz Dumanli) who works at a legal clinic for Istanbul’s trans community. She deals with the hostile Istanbul views of trans people on a daily basis while trying to lead an active social life, including a mild flirtation with a rideshare driver (Ziya Sudançikmaz). How these three are connected is the heart of Akin’s film, a sort of routine road movie that turns into a big-hearted and emotionally satisfying film about found family. I was a big fan of Akin’s breakthrough hit, And Then We Danced, which focused on a closeted, gay dancer living in the rigid, ultra-conservative society of Georgia. In Crossing, Levin provides a possible escape into one of the biggest cities in Turkey. And while Istanbul is certainly no liberal sanctuary city, the urban setting is a refuge for the trans community, most having to resort to work as prostitutes. When Lia and Achi show up to this rundown and poor neighborhood, Lia’s preconceived notions of how horrible her niece’s life must be are confirmed. But as their search continues, Lia’s world view begins to change. Arabuli, as Lia, gives us a believable transformation from no-nonsense to empathy, especially in her interactions with the seemingly feckless Achi, played by Kankava with such spirit and truth that he turns what is essentially a tangential character in the film’s arc into its most memorable. And Dumanli as the trans Evrim is a joy. She never plays Evrim as a virtuous, angelic figure, but she is always honest and compassionate. She embodies what I believe is the real message of the film: Istanbul is a place where some people come to find home.
Sebastian (c) Kino Lorber
Film: Sebastian
In Cinemas (on August 2)
With the exception of Dolly Parton and the girls who work at The Chicken Ranch in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, films rarely portray sex work as a profession without emphasizing its soul-draining social stigma and bottom-of-the-barrel life choices. Thus, it was sort of refreshing to see the titled hero of Mikko Mäkelä’s new film sort of just go for it as a London rent boy finding clients on a website, and while he may be disgusted by some of the clientele, he is pretty well adjusted. But everything is not as it seems. Sebastian is the pseudonym of Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a young magazine writer who is writing a series of articles about a sex worker named Sebastian, but not telling anyone that he himself is Sebastian. When a book publisher shows some interest in Max’s stories for a novel, Max throws himself into the underbelly of London and runs into a lot of different people as Sebastian, including a rich sugar daddy, a fellow rent boy and a hesitant and nervous older client (a very effective Jonathan Hyde). What Mäkelä doesn’t shy away from is that Max thinks of himself too highly as a writer, comparing himself to being this generation’s Bret Easton Ellis, whom Max is assigned to interview, and we get a lot of Ellis talking about being a provocative, celebrity writer. The whole writer angle is the least engaging part of Max’s story, especially in this age of TikTok and influencers where fame could be easier achieved and enjoyed without worrying about the gatekeepers of the literary world. But Sebastian as an alter ego to the more conservative Max is always fascinating, especially in the hands of actor Mollica. Mollica, looking like a slightly severe version of Nick Robinson’s Love, Simon character, walks the fine line between petulance and sincerity. And his scenes with Hyde finally give the film a beating heart that transcends the seductive and salacious world he could have disappeared in. Mäkelä directed one of my favorite rural, gay dramas of the last decade, A Moment in the Reeds, and this one, while it feels more mature, is also a bit fussier. Still, it’s worth the watch.
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