Dìdi

A gutshot coming-of-age story aimed directly at those former teenagers who weathered the great transition from MySpace to Facebook, Dìdi is almost more painful than poignant.

Sean Wang's debut film is an overwhelmingly moving portrait of teenage angst and ennui.

Wang treats them all with gentle understanding and sympathy. His cast are superb, especially Izaac Wang, authentically stroppy and bruised, and Chen as his mother, who feels just as rudderless as her son.

Movies have a way of overly romanticizing coming-of-age stories, but "Dìdi" dispels with the myth of magically growing up and figuring it all out in under two hours...

Dìdi sets itself apart by examining more than just the turbulence of growing pains; it’s also a period piece that understands the flattening effect the internet has on teenagers in particular.

Dìdi is a melancholic, rewarding coming-of-age film.

While the film is sincere and genuine, it falls short in delivering the emotional depth that could have elevated it to a cult classic. Despite this, it remains a heartfelt and honest film that resonates with its audience.

In Dìdi, Sean Wang pulls from his memory, and from the public memory, the experience of being a teenager in 2008. It is a tightly shot, intimate, yet sweeping affair that conjures personal memories.

Writer and director Sean Wang offers a genuine and oftentimes uncomfortable take on boyhood through humor, angst and vulnerability. It’s a familiar narrative, of course, but one that soars above most similar coming-of-age films.

It’s rare that a film like this sticks so resolutely to honesty in its storytelling, with such a willingness to leave conflicts unresolved, at the risk of frustrating those who want a fairytale ending.