Through 'Didi' I Relived The Joys (I Mean Horrors) Of Being 13 in 2008
#287: "Didi," "La Chimera," "Beetlejuice," "Coherence"
Edition 287:
Hey movie lovers!
This week: We’re talking super-indies! Got a chance to catch up on some of the best non-studio movies of the year, starting with a coming-of-age drama and a foreign language thinker. Then, I tried my best to understand the Beetlejuice craze. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” Amy Adams is back on her Sisyphean quest for Oscar gold.
Didi
This must be how the Boomers feel all the time, seeing their generation portrayed on the big screen. Director Sean Wang was born in 1994, and I was born in 1995, so his autobiographical coming=of=age tale about being 14 years old in 2008 was relatable for me, to say the least.
We’re talking AOL Instant Messenger and the early iterations of YouTube, an era when kids weren’t yet plugged into the matrix of modern social media but were nonetheless starting to see the online world creep into their lives, causing minor and major crises in their relationships.
Our titular Didi — a Taiwanese American living in California (this is where his experience and mine diverge…greatly) — is grasping for an identity in the throngs of adolescence, fighting back against his insecurity and testing his independence with increasingly rebellious behavior — sneaking out, joining a skateboard gang, shoplifting, trying drugs for the first time (in that order!).
But this movie has far more in common with Eighth Grade than Mid-90s, despite the latter sharing the skateboarding aesthetic. Both wield the emotional sledgehammer of a really sweet and likable protagonist getting embarrassed in the most humiliating ways possible then reckoning with the consequences. Anyone who has ever been this age can relate — it feels like the end of the world after your first failed attempt at romance, after not being invited to the party, after letting down your friends.
I know circling down the drain stories like this one might be an immediate turn-off for some viewers, who don’t come to movies hoping to see rock bottom, but there’s a lot more to offer here than just 2008 cultural references and teenage PTSD.
It’s rare in movies like this to have such a well-drawn and three-dimensional parent character, but that’s certainly the case for Didi’s mother, played by Joan Chen (who I really liked in Tigertail). She’s a single mother whose life didn’t play out the way she envisioned for herself, or with her children, both of whom have rebelled and attempted to run away from home.
But the love she shows them is at once immense and also nuanced in a really beautiful way. She has one monologue that almost made my eyes water a lil’ bit. Similarly, the way Didi’s relationship with his sister matures over the course of the movie really hits home (as a younger sibling!!).
I also have to give this movie props for not doing the classic independent movie thing where it ends with everyone hugging and singing kumbaya, but don’t worry! Our boy Didi does eventually find his way!
In a given year, there’s a handful of super-indies like this one that are elevated out of independent distribution obscurity and given their day in the sun among the film literati. They aren’t really on the radar of casual movie fans, but in some cases they can ride the wave all the way to awards season — this year’s example being Sing Sing, which I didn’t see because of its brief rollout but is being talked about for a Best Picture nomination.
Whether it’s in specialty theaters or eventually on streaming (I’m realistic), I’d encourage many of you to try to seek out this movie and others like it.
Something New
La Chimera (Hulu): Another of the year’s super-indies! Anyone who has experienced the joys of “Il Maestro” Frederico Fellini’s movies (La Dolce Vita, 81/2) will marvel at this kind of modern take on Fellini’s meandering, reflective dramatic style. (Before you all roll your eyes at me…yes, the movie is in Italian, but no, that’s not the ONLY reason I liked it!)
Josh O’Connor (from Challengers !) stars as a grave robber of ancient artifacts in Italy, who falls in with a group of friends trying to steal their way out of poverty. It’s less about the plot and more a character study of his character, who laments the loss of a previous lover and searches for purpose in thousand-year-old tombs.
If that sounds kind of high-minded to you, maybe even boring, this may not be the movie for you. It’s art first, entertainment second, but I really loved how much emotional content it was able to pack into its simple story. It’s profound, but not in a beat you over the head sort of way. When it wraps up (beautifully by the way), you kind of just sit back and silently go…wow.
Something Old
Beetlejuice (1988, Max): When I went to CinemaCon in March and everyone was trying to tell me that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was going to be one of the biggest hits of 2024, and I went, huh? Now we’ve come to it’s opening weekend and it’s tracking to make $100 million-plus and I’m going…huh?!?!
Now I’ll admit I’ve never been a big Tim Burton guy — creative genius, sure, call it a character flaw on my part that the puppets and goth imagery have never worked on me — but this is someone who has never made hugely commercial movies before! Can’t wait to talk about it next week.
In the meantime, I had to go see what the original was all about. Keaton’s titular character is in like 15 minutes of the movie (as many have pointed out) and the actual protagonists are Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as recently deceased normies who begin haunting the new residents of their house. There are some creative ideas in here and memorable moments but man…I am just not understanding the hype here. Someone who loves this movie please reply to this email and fill me in.
Something to Stream
Coherence (Amazon Prime/FreeVee): Speaking of super-indies…this is one of my favorite MICRO-indies. I find myself recommending out to people A LOT in conversation. First, very few people have seen it. And second, it will absolutely melt your brain.
A group of friends attend a dinner party on a night when a comet is meant to be passing close to Earth, and all of a sudden weird things start happening, leading to anxiety, paranoia, and even existential questions about the nature of reality (yes, it really goes that deep). A brilliant premise and smart writing carry the limited production to impressive heights. It’s one of those movies that will leave you wanting to talk about it for days after you finish.
Trailer Watch: Nightbitch
Let me get this straight…this is a movie about a restless stay-at-home mother who suddenly begins transforming into a wolf at night? To…run around? Got it, got it…looks like Amy Adams annual (and dare I say Sisyphean) quest for an Oscar will have to wait another year. I generally like director Marielle Heller’s movies (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood was okay and Can You Ever Forgive Me? was quite good), so I’m willing to give this utterly ridiculous-looking movie a shot, especially if you’re going to put Scoot McNairy in the second lead role. But I mean…this looks insane right?