Top Pick - Didi

Oscar Tidbit: This movie came out in 2024 and was a total Oscar snub — not a single nod for its beautiful script or incredible performances. It deserved so much more recognition, especially for the way it made me cry like a baby.

 You ever think back to that painfully awkward time in your life? When your insecurities felt bigger than you, when you were just figuring out who you were, and everyone else’s opinion seemed like the most important thing in the world? Well, this movie has all of that — plus it’s set in the late 2000s, in the days of AOL, CD players, MySpace, and flip phones that snapped shut with a satisfying click.

This is a coming-of-age story told through Chris Wang — or Didi, as his mom calls him, and Wang Wang to his friends. He’s just a kid, looking so lost and naïve in high school, trying to fit in. I’ve seen a lot of coming-of-age films about girls hitting puberty — and as much as I love them, it’s refreshing to see that awkward stage through the eyes of a young boy, especially one from a single Asian immigrant family.

You see how every relationship Chris has shapes him — his older sister Vivian, the only one who really notices how lonely he is and tries to help in her own way; his mom Chungsing, who seems clingy at first but maybe she’s just trying her best; the mean mother-in-law who can’t help but remind them how “perfect” the absent dad is, even though he’s off working in Taiwan. Chris can’t talk to girls, and his friends think he’s weird. So he goes looking for a new crew at the skate park — trying to be rebellious, trying to feel like he belongs somewhere, but always carrying that feeling of not being enough.

In the end, all Didi really needed was a hug from his mom and a place to feel safe. And honestly, isn’t that what we all need? No matter how old we get, sometimes we just want to feel like we’re enough — exactly as we are.