Leah Lewis and Alexxis Lemer in The Half of It. Images courtesy of Netflix.
Happy Thursday! May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which celebrates the contributions of AAPI Americans. Today's recommendations are all films directed by AAPI women. This was originally published in my weekly newsletter that helps readers know what to stream.
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Enjoy the beautiful weekend!
Why it's great: The Invitation is the perfect kind of slow-burn. Kusama is extremely patient. She waits and makes you question what kind of movie it is until it finally reveals itself in a stunning manner.
With a jangling score and off-putting visuals, it slowly ratchets up the tension to an unbearable degree. Every beat feels like it's going to be the moment that something is going to happen. You're constantly preparing yourself for the jump and when it comes it's as satisfying as you'd imagine. 100 mins.
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The Farewell is based in part on director Lulu Wang's life. After finding out her grandmother — who she affectionately calls Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) is terminally ill, Chinese-American writer Billie (Awkwafina) travels back home to China to say goodbye. Instead, though, her family hides the diagnosis from Nai Nai and creates an elaborate fake wedding to keep it from her. Here's the trailer.
Why it's great: The Farewell is a movie of dichotomies — Chinese culture and American culture, parents and children, mourning and celebrating, youth and old age — that appropriately straddles the line between drama and comedy. Even during dramatic moments, it seems that there's always something fun going on in the background to remind us that everything in the movie is based in love.
It's so difficult to make the exploration of emotions and family strife entertaining, but director Lulu Wang was able to pull it off by avoiding the melodramatics and instead focusing on the characters, their experiences, and their relationships with each other. 100 mins. [Full review]
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The Half of It, directed by Alice Wu, follows Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a straight-A student who helps her father with the bills by writing papers for other students. This is why she's approached by sweet but hopeless jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) for help writing love letters to the school's misunderstood it-girl Aster (Alexxis Leimer). While Alice and Paul's friendship develops, so do Alice's feelings for Aster. Thank you to Alison for the recommendation. I'll send you my therapy bill. Here's the trailer.
Why it's great: On the surface, The Half of It is a serviceable high school dramedy. However, at its core, it's a sensitive character study of identity and how the town we grew up in shapes it, for better and worse. And though it only skims the surface of sexuality, it's distinctly queer. The gaze is queer. The themes are queer. This is a movie that only a person that has experienced it could accomplish. And although it has all this complexity, it still has the moments of joy and levity we crave in a coming-of-age. However, those moments happen where — and between characters — we least expect them. This is a love story. But not between who you think.
There's a chance The Half of It fades into the background of the multitudes of Netflix romantic comedies that are shuffled away in the mysterious algorithm. But I hope that the right audience sees it. It feels like a cliche now, but if I had seen this movie when I was a kid, I feel like the world would have been different for me. I'd see it differently. I'd understand myself and how to love differently. I'd understand that confusion is just a part of understanding. And that running after a train may look ridiculous, but that's love. 105 mins. [Full review]
? P.S. You can see every movie I've ever recommended right here.
? I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.
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