Three Sundance Film Festival standouts — the award-winning “Didi” and “Kneecap” and the provocative queer drama “Sebastian” — hit theaters this week. So does one of the best films you’ll see this year: “Sing Sing.”
Here’s our roundup.
“Didi”: The inclination to describe Fremont native Sean Wang’s feature length debut — shot and set in his hometown — a coming-of-age tale isn’t off base, but it’s not completely representative of what this wondrous, loosely autobiographical dramedy about a Taiwanese American 13-year-old boy growing up in 2008 does so well. Yes, it checks off the rite of passage boxes — learning how to kiss, being overshadowed by other high-achieving students, falling into that awkward crush, feuding with an older sibling — are all there, as well as the time period’s teen-appropriate tech tools (MySpace, YouTube, early years of Facebook). And “Didi” nails that sense that you’re an outsider always looking in.
“Didi,” though, does something extra special in its creation of a tender but fraught relationship between skateboarder and videographer Chris (Izaac Wang, in one of the year’s most on-point acting feats) and his exasperated nascent painter of a mom Chungsing (Joan Chen, serving up a brittle, sensitive performance worthy of awards). Both are striving to belong — he in school and amongst friends, she in wanting to pursue a painting career and life beyond the routine of being a mom. Nether feel the full acceptance for who they truly are. Whereas other coming-of-age stories tend to cloak themselves in the softened, laugh-track-heavy view of nostalgia, Wang concentrates on authentic encounters — some funny, some painful, some a mix of both — between this mother and son and between Chris and his friends who casually remark that he’s cool for an Asian — squirm-inducing comments that while not malicious can take their toll. It’s a topic that’s seamlessly, effectively introduced here in a natural way.
Already an Oscar nominee for his heartwarming documentary short “Nai Nai & Wai Po,” the 30-year-old Wang reveals exceptional talent both as a director and screenwriter and has given us one of the most nuanced coming-of-age films in years.
For Fremont residents, it’s also a treat to see East Bay neighborhoods and landmarks get the big-screen treatment. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; opens Aug. 2 in area theaters.
“Sing Sing”: Even with growing evidence that he’s an innocent man spending decades behind bars, Divine G (Colman Domingo) remains stuck in prison where he finds solace and friendship doing what he loved on the outside — performing on stage. In Greg Kwedar’s liberating celebration of the human spirit, Divine G mentors one of the toughest guys in the infamous Sing Sing prison — Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (portrayed by Maclin with raw passion and power) — and realizes his charge has something special to offer to a theater production being staged but also when he returns to the outside. Kwedar’s intimate, sensitive film focuses ever so tightly on the lined faces of this collection of men, including Bay Area stage actor Sean San Jose, a knockout as Mike Mike — Divine G’s best friend on the inside. It’s one of numerous right cinematic decisions made in a film that celebrates the solace and power to be found within art and the human quest for vindication and liberation. Domingo is on fire here, most notably in two powerful but understated scenes — when Divine G faces a review board and at the film’s finale. “Sing Sing” is extraordinary, a unique piece that’s set in a prison but its not a “prison film.” Details: 4 stars; in Bay Area theaters Aug. 2.
“Kneecap”: Say you just downed a six pack of Red Bull (not advised) and polished that off with four belts of espresso (seriously not advised) — the ensuing hyperactivity might be akin to what shakes out in Rich Peppiatt’s rule-breaking Sundance Film Festival winner set in post-Troubles Ireland and based on the rise of an actual group. After a series of raucous, profanity-spewed events, two trouble-prone, drug-taking childhood best friends (Mo Chara and Moglai Bap) and a Belfast high school language teacher (DJ Provai) form an upstart Irish hip-hop group — later dubbed Kneecap. They perform in their Irish language in a show of Irish pride, and it ruffles the feathers of politicians, cops and others. It also starts to attract fans — a lot of fans. “Kneecap” relates the story in wild, imaginative ways, and that’s right in step with who the band members are and what makes them — and this movie — so unhinged and appealing. Michael Fassbender costars in a small, pivotal role as the on-the-lam father of Bap’s character. Details: 3½ stars; in theaters Friday.
“Sebastian”: Ambitious 25-year-old London writer Max (Ruaridh Mollica) takes the shopworn advice about writing what you know not just to heart, but right into other men’s bedrooms in Mikko Mäkelä’s erotic character study — a fascinating exploration into the code switching that goes on between the more traditional Max and the sex worker alter-ego he creates named Sebastian. Mollica’s accomplished, measured performance drives Mäkelä’s sophomore feature, which refreshingly avoids judgment and gives Max — who is gearing up for a potential interview with author Bret Easton Ellis and also wrestling with a novel about (you guessed it) a sex worker — the chance to embrace the wholeness of his queer sexuality through his experiences. These include a fulfilling, more lasting relationship with older client Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde in a performance of pure tenderness). It’s shot extremely well and is graphic but not gratuitous. Details: 3½ stars; opens Friday at the Opera Plaza in San Francisco.
“#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead”: A rough, overly chaotic 20-minute start all but ensures that Marcus Dunstan’s slasher teardown of social influencer culture is a dud. But then the slashing begins and the maniac comedy evens itself out, turning into a decent horror film with some very inventive, “Saw-”esque deaths. A group of annoying friends are on their way to Karmapalooza, 20 years after a killer canceled the concert by slaying seven. Car trouble sends them to a killer air bnb where a psycho with a penchant for the Seven Deadly Sins awaits. The cast headed by Jade Pettyjohn know they’re in tongue-in-cheek territory in a moderately successful twister constructed around some very good twists. Too bad its opening moments weren’t smoothed out better. Still, if you’re a fan of the genre, you should like it. A scene involving a driver’s license is exceptionally funny. Details: 2½ stars; available to rent Aug. 2.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
