Didi (15, 94 mins)
Verdict: Brilliantly observed drama
Rating:
With the school summer holidays stretching ahead of some parents like the endless, arid landscape of the Gobi Desert, three cheers for the nation's cinemas which are at least providing a few oases of entertainment.
The pick of this week's releases is Didi, a funny, poignant, piercingly well-observed coming-of-age drama which will appeal not just to older teenagers but to many grown-ups who still vividly remember the torments of those years: spots, crushes, awkward dates, peer pressure, hateful older siblings, you name it.
Moreover, Sean Wang's partly autobiographical film — a hugely impressive debut feature — will resonate even more with anyone whose teens were complicated by immigrant parents, well-meaning single mothers, or opinionated live-in grannies. Thirteen-year-old Chris (impeccably played by Izaac Wang) is lumbered with all three.
It is 2008. Chris ('Didi' to his loved ones, 'Wang Wang' to his mates) lives in Fremont, California, with his Taiwanese mum Chungsing (the wonderful Joan Chen), big sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), and paternal grandma Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua, the director's actual grandmother). Chris's father is far away in Taiwan, sending money home, although his absence is deeply resented by Chungsing, and is a source of perpetual conflict between her and her aged mother-in-law.
Indeed, the household is full of conflict, with Chungsing looking on proudly but uneasily as her wholly Californian children assimilate; and Chris and Vivian often at screaming loggerheads. But with all three females in the house, Chris's relationships evolve. It's written and acted very tenderly.
(L to R) Izaac Wang as 'Chris' and Mahaela Park as 'Madi' in writer/director Sean Wang's Didi
Outside the home, his life is just as fraught. He has a crush on his classmate Madi, with exciting but also nerve-racking hints that she might be receptive. 'You're pretty cute for an Asian,' she says, and he's happy to treat that as encouragement rather than condescension or plain racism.
As for his male friendships, they ebb and flow, as Chris blunders his way through the fast-growing minefield of social media. At school he stands up to bullies, but that gets him into trouble. At the local mall he befriends some cool older kids, skateboarding dudes, who invite him to become their official videographer. He is flattered and thrilled, but as in other areas of his life he gets tripped up by his eagerness to fit in. It's not long before the wheels come off his skateboarding venture.
Some of this is sad, some of it hilarious. But it is all thoroughly believable, terrifically engaging, and very shrewdly the director does not try to tie things up with pat resolutions, rejecting all the usual trajectories of rites-of- passage movies.
Better still, he keeps it to a whisker over an hour and a half, which isn't so great in the filling-an-afternoon context of school summer holidays, but amounts to the kind of concise and compelling storytelling that some film-makers much more experienced than Wang no longer appear to consider valid, more's the pity.
Harold And The Purple Crayon (PG, 92 mins)
Verdict: Erases the original
Rating:
An option for much younger children, Harold And The Purple Crayon is based on the book of the same name, which my own kids loved when they were little. Carlos Saldanha's film, alas, makes scarcely any attempt to recreate its spirit.
Crockett Johnson's charming 1955 tale told the story of a little boy who created a magical nighttime world with his purple crayon, returning safely home by drawing a window around the Moon.
The ending always elicited a satisfied sleepy sigh from our children, so 20 years on I hardly dare break it to them that the movie makes Harold (Zachary Levi) a goofy grown man, who befriends a boy called Mel (Benjamin Bottani) as he runs amok with his crayon in the real world.
It's fun in parts, with faint echoes of the 1970s TV show Mork & Mindy. Zooey Deschanel, as Mel's widowed mum Terri, might have been cast for her resemblance to Pam Dawber, who played Mindy all those years ago. Jemaine Clement is a hoot as sly librarian Gary, who has the hots for Terri.
But none of that stopped my gently simmering indignation, so far removed is the story from Crockett's original.
Harold and the Purple Crayon poster
Kensuke's Kingdom (PG, 85 mins)
Verdict: Oddly retro
Rating:
Kensuke's Kingdom is another adaptation, an animated version of a novel by author Michael Morpurgo.
Our hero is a boy called Michael (voiced by Aaron MacGregor) who is swept overboard during a round-the-world sailing trip with his parents (Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy) and, with the family dog Stella, washes up on a remote Pacific island, where an elderly Japanese war veteran (Ken Watanabe) watches over him.
With a top-notch voice cast and a script by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kensuke's Kingdom promises rather more than it delivers.
It pulsates with wholesome charm but the line-drawing animation in particular is disconcertingly retro, oddly reminiscent of another 70s classic, Scooby-Doo.
All films are in cinemas now.
Kensuke's Kingdom is another adaptation, an animated version of a novel by author Michael Morpurgo
British writer Michael Morpurgo poses during a photo session in Paris on January 29, 2024
Mary celebrates 60 supercalifragilistic years!
This month marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most delightful children's films of all time, the glorious Mary Poppins. I was privileged a few years ago at the Venice Film Festival to hear the mighty Dame Julie Andrews discuss it.
She didn't have any dirt to dish. The 1964 film landed her an Oscar as Best Actress. It was a joyful set, thanks not least to her co-star Dick Van Dyke, who as Bert the chimney sweep might have mangled his Cockney vowels, but spread good cheer everywhere he went.
Karen Dotrice, who played Jane Banks, tells happy stories about how Van Dyke became a father figure to her, and has similarly fond memories of Walt Disney.
On free weekends Disney would fly her, her mother and sisters to his sumptuous Palm Springs ranch on his private plane (named 'Mickey Mouse One') but because young Dotrice was scared of flying, he had it fitted out like the interior of a sweetshop.
It's rather lovely to know that Mary Poppins was as pleasing to make as it has always been to watch.
Actress Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in a scene from the movie' Mary Poppins', 1964
That said, the 2013 picture Saving Mr Banks, much as I enjoyed it, ended up sand-papering some of the hard edges off the formidable Mary Poppins author, P.L. Travers, as played in the film by Emma Thompson.
Richard Sherman, half of the film's brilliant songwriting team alongside his brother Bob, went to his grave earlier this summer remembering Travers as 'a walking icicle'.
Mary Poppins is screening now in selected cinemas and is available to stream on Disney+.
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