There was a unique terror to realizing you'd been bumped out of a friend's top-eight on Myspace. Long before Twitter likes, Facebook statuses, or Instagram boyfriends, this early form of social media ushered millennials into a DIY HTML platform where you could share your likes, diary entries, and photos while also ruthlessly ranking your friends. This unique generational anxiety is captured with brilliant wit and poignancy in Dìdi.
The directorial debut of writer/director Sean Wang, Dìdi is a coming-of-age story that feels personal while avoiding the pitfalls of self-mythologizing or navel-gazing. The premise of a 13-year old Taiwanese American boy learning to be true to himself and nicer to his mother might sound a bit austere. Far from indulgent or meandering, it's radiantly vulnerable and utterly electrifying.
Wang rejects sentimentality and nostalgia, embracing a ruthlessly authentic look back at being a teen in the days of MySpace and AIM. More than just set dressing, these online elements offer an unguarded access to the fickle thoughts and reckless impulses of a teen desperate to be seen but terrified of being perceived. But there's much more to Dìdi than Wang's mindful employment of antique social media.
It's the summer of 2008 in the cozy Northern California town of Fremont. Kids are throwing parties, flirting in parks, and skateboarding wherever they can. In the midst of all this is Chris Wang (Izaac Wang, Raya and the Last Dragon), who begins the summer by navigating the nightmare terrain of a boy/girl pool party. Dìdi won't deliver the soul-shaking secondhand embarrassment of Bo Burnham's heralded coming-of-age summer drama Eighth Grade. Nor will it reach the lunacy of the 2000s-set buddy sitcom PEN15. Instead, Wang charts a course all his own by exploring the warring identities of its young hero through his many names.
Among his school friends, who are all Asian, he goes by Wang Wang, and he's a foul-mouthed goofball, game for anything. At home, he is Dìdi, which in Mandarin is a pet name meaning Little Brother. There he vacillates between being playful with his finger-wagging grandmother Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), mercurial to his devoted mom Chungsing (Joan Chen), and in squawking battles with his surly older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen). But when he befriends some older skaters — most of whom are white — he code-switches, introducing himself as Chris and eagerly insisting he can be the "filmer" to capture their sick moves on video, so they might score a skateboarding sponsorship. (The dream of '00s teens before the rise of influencers!) Meanwhile, his AIM handle is Bigwang510.
So, when he gets some much-yearned-for face time with his crush Madi (Mahaela Park), this kid on the brink of high school is not sure how to introduce himself. He fumbles, telling her his name is Chris but that his friends call him Wang Wang. When Madi asks what she should call him, it's not an easy answer — because who will he be to her?
The child actors of Dìdi had to be taught about T9 word, the antiquated texting tool demanded by old-school flip phones equipped with only 9 keys. But they show no struggles embodying the '00s-era dialogue of gleeful juvenalia with barbs like, "Your mom is gay," and the hushed (and hilarious) response, "Dude — his mom has cancer!" In these frantic exchanges, Wang welcomes us back into the teen world, where talk about dental braces and dead squirrels can make or break friendships.
Here's where AIM and Myspace come into play. When a group hang gets messy, Wang Wang worries his best friend Fahad (Raul Dial) has outgrown him. In the instant messenger window, he types, "Are we still friends?" but doesn't hit send. Admittedly, it's a cliche to have a character type out the feelings they can't say aloud, but it's a cliche for a reason. Who among us hasn't started to text someone and then second-guessed hitting send?
Across Wang Wang's countenance, there are flickers of frustration, sadness, and anxiety. But at his fingertips is technology that allows him to express what he can't bring himself to say out loud. A similarly revealing exchange with Madi over AIM ends with him blocking her instead of admitting his own vulnerabilities. These repressions fester into outbursts against his mom, where he's so sharp that even his new friends question why he's being so mean. Something's got to give, and even as we witness Wang Wang deliver some snarling burns and unfair insults, you can't help but root for him to figure himself out — and hug his mom!
The way Wang weaves these elements of technology with his hero's rocky self-discoveries is elegantly done, even when the journey is purposefully not. There's a suitable chaos to Dìdi that reflects the tumultuousness of the teen mind. One moment Wang Wang is a loving goofball, playing the fool to make his friends and family laugh. The next, he's a sparkler of rage and recrimination, setting off fiery remarks until he runs out of fuel. Then he seems on the brink of an emotional breakthrough — or breakdown. And all of it is achingly raw and relatable.
Wang doesn't idealize or sanitize his teen characters, and thus they feel unflinchingly real. It's hard not to think of Eighth Grade or Minding the Gap or Skate Kitchen while watching Wang Wang, as each of these excellent movies explore the heady joys and crushing despair of being young and impressionable. But Dìdi doesn't pale in comparison to any of these. Instead, it feels like a part of their friend group, vibrant in spirit, agonizing in anxiety, and cathartic in its journey. But most of all, like these other critically heralded films, Dìdi is unforgettable.
When I first walked away from the film, I was charmed. But I also haven't been able to shake it. Be it the joltingly authentic performances of its young ensemble, the shrewd edit that throws audiences back into '00s chat rooms and all the drama they entail, or the frenzied excitement that bursts through in Wang Wang's revels, my mind went back again and again, making me laugh and cringe once more.
In the end, Dìdi isn't just a good coming-of-age movie or a great coming-of-age movie. Dìdi is unquestionably one of the most poignant and very best movies of the year.
Dìdi opens in theaters July 26.
UPDATE: Jul. 26, 2024, 2:13 p.m. EDT This article has been updated to employ the correct accent on Dìdi.
