Growing up can be a real pain. Set in the summer of 2008, Dìdi (弟弟) is a coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Sean Wang. The film follows 13-year-old Chris (Izaac Wang) as he heads into his freshman year of high school, chronicling his relationships with his friends, sister, mother, and grandmother as he figures out how to grow up in an online age. This type of film is designed to appeal to those born in the mid-’90s, with its depictions of MySpace, Instant Messaging, and the early days of uploading YouTube videos. But there’s much here that speaks to a more universal experience of adolescence.

Wang just finished his Oscar-nominated short film Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (奶奶跟外婆). One of the subjects of that documentary, his real-life grandmother, plays Chris’ grandmother. How’s that for a hint at how personal this film is? This film feels at times like it could be autobiographical. Chris and Chris’ actor share a last name with the director, and we can sense Wang’s perspective as a Taiwanese-American boy reflected in this protagonist. He’s interested in videography (as a future filmmaker) and uses it to make skateboarding videos for a group of local skaters.

The film does a great job of portraying a culturally specific Asian American experience. There are unsolicited comments about parents’ bodies and medical advice, umbrellas on sunny days, 99 Ranch discount days marked on calendars, and the occasional feeling of being an outsider in America. Some of the elements can resonate not only with Asian Americans, but also with children of immigrant parents. One of the strongest elements of this film is how it portrays the struggles of a single-parent household. Chris’s father earns money abroad, leaving him in a house with his older sister, Vivian (Shirley Chen), his grandmother, Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), and his mother, Chungsing (Joan Chen).

Didi feels like an Asian American male version of Bo Burnham’s 2018 film Eighth Grade. Wang’s aim here is a little different, as he wants to capture a moment in time when he was younger and bring it to life through this cinematic lens. There’s a lot he tackles that feels very real here, like the inappropriate ways that teenage boys speak and how explicit they can be, especially with teenage girls. Hormones are running high, especially when Chris realizes he’s fallen for a girl named Madi (Mahaela Park).