In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him — how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
In his striking directorial debut, Sean Wang takes us on a kinetic ride through the ups and downs of adolescence, mining personal experience to share a joyful, funny and deeply affecting ode to first-generation teenagers navigating the beauty and pain of cultural heritage in a sea of conformity. Wang confidently steers us through the freewheeling early days of social media, where AIM emoticons and MySpace rankings carry the weight of heartbreak and friendships forged and broken. Both a moving love letter to immigrant parents and a playful examination of our uncertain paths to adulthood, DÌDI (??) reminds us that growing up and growing into better versions of ourselves are often one and the same. (Synopsis from 2024 Sundance Film Festival Program Guide)
“By its closing credits, DÌDI resembles the often-exasperating boy it has been following for 90-some minutes: charming, rough around the edges, and brimming with potential.” ––Wilson Chapman, IndieWire
“Easily one of the best, most seamless films I’ve seen on the experience of growing up online.” ––Adrian Horton, Guardian
“A very solid entry in the annals of coming-of-age films, reminiscent of Bo Burnham’s EIGHTH GRADE in both its affection for its young characters and its willingness to meet them on their own terms. But its real secret weapon turns out to be the equal empathy it extends toward Chungsing, whose own journey emerges as a moving complement to her son’s.” ––Angie Han, Hollywood Reporter