Dìdi (弟弟)2024

Dìdi exudes a special kind of empathy and warmth toward the kids who grew up in the age of Myspace, as well as their families. Many coming-of-age stories examine a child’s relationship with themselves and their parents, but Dìdi also tracks how those shifts were made more jarring and strange in the early days of social media.

This film feels really relatable to my own life as an Asian, especially as an Indonesian. The conversations between Wang Wang, his older sister, his mother, and his Nai Nai also feel familiar to me as someone who grew up in a Javanese family culture. The choices Wang Wang makes, and even the little lies he tells, remind me of things I also did. Sometimes I just wanted to look cool, or at least not look bad, especially in front of friends or a crush. Home has always been the safest place for me to be myself. That’s why Wang Wang doesn’t avoid conflict with his sister and his mom. I believe identity is something that needs to be built strongly, so a boy can grow up feeling proud of himself.

What holds it all together is a superbly understated performance from Wang, who is fully three-dimensional as Chris — a decent kid trying to figure it all out. Absent here are all the usual cinema cliches and exaggerations about teen life, thank the goddess.