"Dìdi" Review: A Brilliant, Genuine Examination of Late 2000s Angst and Belonging
Dìdi is a thoughtful examination of a very particular generation growing up in a very particular point in time - that being a 13-year-old boy in the summer of 2008 and learning how to navigate familial struggles, how to flirt with girls, and the pursuit of having a group of friends to belong with. // Image: Focus Features
When I started Derek Ex Machina as a project over six years ago, my intention for it was to be a method for me to get my writing out into the world, have an opportunity to talk about the media that leaves a profound impact on me, and share my thoughts around the world. From 2018 to 2021, I talked about movies and video games, sometimes as reviews and other times as analyses. In 2021, in the midst of a year-long and depression-filled job search, I put Derek Ex Machina on an indefinite hiatus, as I struggled to find the motivation to write content consistently. “Maybe writing this kind of content just isn’t for me,” I would think to myself.
Despite this thought, I never stopped actively seeing movies and playing video games. My love for storytelling and writing has never wavered, only getting stronger and stronger over time. As the months and years went on, I had a looming wish to return to making content for and expanding this blog so that I could have an avenue to scream to the skies about movies and games that I want the entire world to go see and experience. But for one reason or another, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Whether it’s been the hustle-and-bustle of working, working on creative writing for novels and games, and generally navigating this crazy thing called life, I kept putting off returning to writing blog content. I told myself that, when I return, it would have to be for something that really resonated with me so much that I needed to talk about it and bring attention to it.
After over three years, I found that something. Dìdi is a very special movie - the kind that needs to be discussed, known, and understood to as many people as possible.
The coming-of-age comedy-drama is a genre that’s explored various time periods, emotions, character arcs, and themes. Dìdi stands out from its crowded sea of contemporaries by being a thorough exploration of navigating life as a young teenager growing up in late 2000s culture where the online world is making a gradually bigger presence in peoples’ lives. From friends communicating with each other over AIM and texting on their flip phones to windows with LimeWire being open to sharing links to an infamous “meatspin” website - this film offers an authentic cultural window in a particular time, which in turn gives a unique perspective to tell for its coming-of-age story.
Dìdi centers around Chris Wang, referred to other characters throughout the film as either “Dìdi” or “Wang Wang”. The film’s opening shot tells you everything you need to know about Chris: he films low-quality YouTube videos with his childhood friends that involve blowing up neighbors’ mailboxes. All seems well from the surface - Chris appears to be a care-free kid enjoying his summer vacation with his friends with immature jokes that simultaneously showcase the lack of political correctness for kids growing up in this era mixed with subversions that result in some genuinely great laughs (a particular gag involving one of Chris’ friends’ mother having cancer made my theater explode in laughter numerous times). However, as we slowly learn more about Chris as we follow the latter half of his last summer before high school, we see a family life filled with tension and Chris’ gradual descent into not knowing where he belongs nor who he belongs with.
In a strong scene in the first act, we get introduced to Chris’ family when they’re all at the dinner table. Vivian, Chris’ older sister, is preparing to depart for college, and yet their sibling relationship is about as adversarial as can be. As they scream at each other from across the table, their mother, played by Joan Chen, sits in silence as she waits for their aggression to dissipate whereas their grandmother stops their tirade, then berates their mother for allowing her kids to fight with each other in the first place. This tension and angst in Chris’ life tells us that Chris merely wants to have an opportunity to escape his unhappiness with his familial life.
That attempt to escape comes in the form of trying to flirt with a girl that he formally meets at a pool party (and informally meets by stalking her Myspace and Facebook pages to uncover her musical taste that Chris tries to use to his advantage). Another attempt to escape gradually comes in the form of hanging out with skaters looking to record videos to get sponsors, to which Chris agrees to help out. This leads to a comical yet very human scene where Chris is asked about his YouTube channel before rushing home, running into his home, and frantically selecting most of his videos and taking a deep breath before deleting them from the website.
The 2008 backdrop is more than just time period nostalgia in this film (as heartbreaking as it is to already think that 2008 is already a time that people can be reasonably nostalgic for). The late 2000s setting serves as a way to uniquely communicate and explore the ways in which people navigate social situations during this time. Dìdi stands out from so many other coming-of-age movies thanks to its commitment to authentically representing the early online experience and the questions about fitting in as they relate to having a social online presence with friends and romantic interests.
There are times when we see tension to a time when Chris hesitates before clicking “Block” on an AIM chat with another character, or typing “Are we still friends?” with another character before backspacing on the message and sending nothing at all. I was reminded much of the excellent Searching and Missing films in the way that this film smartly uses screen capture to focus on the ways that characters talk to (or sometimes, don’t talk to) each other in online spaces. We learn just as much about Chris through the way he doesn’t interact with people as much as we learn about him when he does.
As Chris navigates his attempt to fit in with a larger group of people, he inevitably pushes away some of his older friends. And when he shows some of his amateur skateboarding videos to a group of older skaters that are less-than-impressed with Chris’ results, we see his blank face stare at his computer screen, clearly longing for more acceptance. He then bursts out at his mother for checking in on him and forces her out of his room, to the disapproval of his friends who genuinely take interest in her painting - something that Chris insults his mother about throughout the film.
The emotional core of Dìdi is one of searching for belonging through social acceptance and what happens when a person is denied that acceptance. The film’s third act focuses on Chris confronting his troubled relationship with his mother and sister that masterfully respects the complexities of shame, pride, and familial love. // Image: Focus Features
As Chris pushes away his childhood friends and his newfound skating friends, we see a heart-wrenching and perhaps all-too-real scene where Chris sends messages to a chatbot. In this chat, we see Chris finally unveil his feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, to which the bot responds by claiming that Chris is its friend. The experience of chatting with a bot to discuss one’s feelings that they bury around others is yet another masterful use of the time period as well as a fantastic way to convey character writing. This leads to Dìdi’s fantastic emotional core that is fully explored in its final act.
After Chris lashes out by punching another boy in his study class after being made fun of for his social mistakes - a clear sour spot for Chris as we learn throughout the film -, Chris is forced to confront his mother. In a conversation that many filmgoers will likely connect with in some capacity, Chris angrily walks out of his mom’s car after feeling like he gets berated by his mother for not living up to her expectations. But this very idea gets challenged earlier in the film, when we see Chris’ mother get lectured by Chris’ grandmother about not being good enough of a mother.
The generational cycle of shame and failing to live up to the expectations of the elders is at the emotional center of Dìdi . As the film explores this idea in its final act, we see a bittersweet and heartfelt discussion between Chris and his mother about how she feels about her children and why she acts the way she does. What follows is a resolve within Chris that is as believable as it is human. We see an attempt from Chris to redeem himself among his friends and the people he believes he wronged. His attempt to move forward is imperfect, but he tries. Life moves forward and Chris tries to make as much right as he can, as we all strive to.
Dìdi is a special film thanks to its dedication to authenticity. Its intelligently crafted script leads to some excellent humor and heartful moments. Even in moments that target depict the experience of growing up as an Asian-American - an experience I’m unable to fully understand -, Dìdi authentically captures the struggle of becoming emotionally intelligent in a way that everyone can understand - especially those that also grew up in an era where technology and the internet grew alongside us.
This film carries an emotional story with unapologetic genuineness, which makes it stand out from other coming-of-age comedy-dramas and made me laugh, smile, and feel the genuine sorrow of not fitting in. Dìdi is an intimate, thorough exploration of a particular experience in a particular time, and it is a particular delight to watch. This is genuinely one of the strongest and most emotional movies of the year and one that any filmgoer owes themselves to experience as soon as possible.
Final Grade: A+
Thank you very much for reading! What did you think of Dìdi? Do you think it stands as one of the best films of its genre? As always, join the conversation and let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter/X @DerekExMachina.
