ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
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
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
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.
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