The Farewell
For her second feature, writer-director Lulu Wang (Posthumous) tackles the dubious tradition of lying to a family member in order to safeguard them from the truth. When Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhou) is given three months to live, her family opts for what they consider to be the most humane send off: keep granny in the dark by throwing an attention-diverting wedding. Awkwafina drew raves for her performance as the peroxided fruitcake in Crazy Rich Asians. Her dramatic turn as the granddaughter who was raised never to tell a lie is more refreshing than a splash of Aquafina. She’s sensational! When Wang strikes an “Aren’t old people funny?” pose, it’s tantamount to accidentally stepping on the remote and up pops an episode of TV’s Golden Girls. Sure, we know damn well that a dinnertime joke early on will return to hit cute, and that leaving lit cigarettes on his grave for grandpa to enjoy is categorically umbday. But on the plus side, Ms. Wang puts her Panavision lens to impeccable use. You can count the number of closeups on one hand.