Sean Wang’s “Dìdi”,” recently acquired by Focus Features, will be getting a much-deserved theatrical release on July 26. I watched around 20 films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and “Dìdi” was only one of a handful of films I’d consider to be above average. A trailer has been released and gives us a good glimpse of the sweet nature that this film possesses.
“Dìdi” took home the coveted Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category and a special Jury Award for Best Ensemble. This was another worthy winner, and one of the better films of this year’s competition, a brief shout out to “Between the Temples” and “Good One” as well.
Set in 2008, during the last month of summer, before high school begins, “Dìdi” tackles an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy who learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to navigate the most turbulent time in a boy’s life.
It’s a sweet, real and incredibly resonant film — think Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade.” If you loved that one then you’ll be taken by “Dìdi.” It’s not a gamechanger by any means, but it’s the kind of discovery that makes Sundance such an essential festival.