As the theater lights dim, a home video appears on the screen with a residential mailbox as the focus, and a few seconds later, explodes.

With an impressive performance at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award: US Dramatic and US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble before being released in theaters on July 26th, the film Dìdi was already off to an admirable start and I anticipate it will get even more praise as more people stream the film from home.

Despite this film being a debut for director Sean Wang, it’s already become praised for being an accurate depiction of growing up with the internet in the early 2000s, yet oddly specific to the director, as the film is inspired by Wang’s childhood, growing up as a Taiwanese American.

With many films attempting to portray the teenage/ growing up experience, I feel Dìdi is the most relatable and true to real-life film I’ve seen. Everything from the plot down to the interactions between characters, there is something in this film everyone can relate to and this film doesn’t feel “glamorized” like most other coming-of-age films do.

The movie Dìdi follows a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy named Chris, played by Izaac Wang, during the summer between the end of middle school and the start of high school. The movie depicts the struggles of being a firstborn American from an immigrant family, fitting in with friends, and trying to figure out who you are.

Throughout the movie, you’re taken on an emotional rollercoaster. In some moments, you’re laughing at the dumb things Chris and his friends say, and later, you’re on the verge of tears as your heart breaks for Chris. While an emotional rollercoaster may sound unappealing, it’s the most accurate way to portray Chris’ story without seeming untrue to the tween/teen experience.

We see Chris struggling to fit in with the friends he made in middle school. I think to some extent everyone can relate to this feeling, which makes the film more realistic. Chris is often saying the wrong thing, which causes him to feel even more left out and alone. This film does a great job showing how hard it is to fit in at that age while still instilling hope in you that things will work out for Chris.

Many movies glamorize the youth experience by hiring gorgeous actors. Dìdi, is a more realistic representation because Izaac Wang, the actor who plays Chris, is 16 years old, which is unique to the industry since most teen roles are played by young adults or adults. I appreciated this touch to the film because when other films use older actors, it often confuses younger viewers into believing that this is what they could look like at 13 instead of hiring actors around the age of the character.

With Rotten Tomatoes scoring Didi 96% and Google Reviews giving the film a 4.1 I’d have to agree with those scores. The film was funny, sweet, and very relatable. Even if you can’t relate to the exact situations in the film, you can still relate to how Chris felt overall throughout the film and how tough it is to be a kid at that age. Most reviews praised Didi for being a good representation of growing up as an “Asian American in Fremont in the 2000s” but felt that it was a “try-hard movie” with an unlikeable main character and other underdeveloped characters.

I can see how some people would feel that some of the characters were underdeveloped, but I felt that the movie wasn’t about those side characters, it was about the main character, Chris’ experience, and we’re seeing life through his eyes. I also didn’t see Chris as unlikable, he did stupid things, but that’s the point. He’s young and irresponsible and this movie wouldn’t be true to the youth experience if we didn’t feel some frustration towards him at certain points.

Didi is deserving of its time on the big screen. You’re in for a heartfelt relatable film that is destined to remind you of your childhood while also having you burst out into laughter with the hilarious character dialogue.