Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Film round-up: August 1, 2024
Adolescent boyhood, castaway, a Japanese masterpiece, and the limitless power of imagination: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Didi, Kensuke’s Kingdom, My Neighbour Totoro, and Harold and the Purple Crayon
round up
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Didi (15)
Directed by Sean Wang
★★★★
SET in 2008 during the last month of summer this hilarious yet raw and biting coming-of age tale captures the irreverence and vulnerability of adolescent boyhood as it follows the life of a 13-year-old Taiwanese-American youngster.
Loosely inspired by his own teenage years and shot in his hometown of Fremont, writer-director Sean Wang’s impressive debut feature is charming and moving.
It portrays the spikey sibling relationship to a tee as Chris (Izaac Wang), “Didi” to his mother, bickers and fights bitterly with his older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) who finds him extremely annoying, and is fed up with how he steals her hoodies and T-shirts.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
