This beautiful and intimate movie focuses on Asian-American teenager Angie, a budding artist and independent thinker, who has her first sexual experiences on the down-low with Liam, the "it" boy of their small private school. Liam is involved with the beautiful Social Media influencer "it" girl, Sheryl, and though they appear to be a perfect couple, she won't 'go all-the-way' with Liam, which has him roving elsewhere. While this sounds like it could produce a redux one-dimensional tale of a teen-triangle, the performances are complex, authentic and wonderfully rendered by Emma Galbraith as Angie, William Magnuson as Liam and Emily Garrett as Sheryl. They bring a depth to their performances that made me feel the complexity of what it feels like to be chosen and alternately ignored, wanted and rejected, seen and unseen. These relationships play out against the backdrop of Angie's parents getting divorced, and Angie's father moving on with a Chinese woman and her 'more' Asian daughter. The convoluted territory of biracial relationships, multidimensional people and flawed but loving human beings is steered masterfully by Mei Makino, the writer/director. The movie is set in Galveston TX, which presents a very quaint / 'white' backdrop for the story to pop. I HIGHLY recommend this movie. I must also give a shoutout to the artist who rendered Angie's drawings - Larissa Akhmetova. They are imaginative and add great insight to Angie's passion and emotions. A gem of a movie -- and it's getting great reviews (NY Times Critic's pic, npr interview, SXSW and Caamfest winner). Worth it.
