Dìdi (2024) review

With his father in Taiwan making the family money, Chris (Izaac Wang) lives with his struggling artist mother Chungsing (Joan Chen), college-bound sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) and grandmother Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua) in Fremont where he has a few life experiences: he's enamored with Madi (Mahaela Park) even though she's out of his league, he hangs out with older skateboarders and offers to record them (except he's not good) and brushes off his real friends.  I respect director Wang (in his feature debut) for trying to recapture those "awkward years" amidst the sudden flood of social media (the kids use MySpace, Instant Messenger and early versions of YouTube and Facebook), although it's another pandering Sundance Factory Approved™ coming-of-age movie with a familiar arc: Nai Nai becomes ill, he quarrels with Mom and Sis, tries to be more mature than he really is and acts like a jerk with Madi.  As time passes, he eventually reconnects with his kin (Vivian leaves him a UCSD hoodie to remind him of her), presumably patches up a lost connection with his pals and enters the scary world of high school: it's a "safe" explanation of the pains of "growing up."  But even having "learned" tough lessons, he loses the girl: some ladies hold grudges.