Curator Watchlist
A deeply moving family dramedy that balances grief, cultural tension, and dry humor with remarkable warmth. It’s especially rewarding if you like intimate, performance-driven films that find big emotion in small, specific details.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 40m
Director: Lulu Wang
Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Hong Lu
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
Lulu Wang
Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Hong Lu
A deeply moving family dramedy that balances grief, cultural tension, and dry humor with remarkable warmth. It’s especially rewarding if you like intimate, performance-driven films that find big emotion in small, specific details.
The Farewell is one of those rare movies that feels both deeply personal and instantly universal. Lulu Wang builds the film around a morally complicated family lie, but the real power comes from how naturally it observes the awkward tenderness of relatives trying to protect one another. It’s funny in the way real family gatherings are funny: sudden, embarrassing, and often sitting right beside sadness.
Awkwafina gives a restrained, searching performance that anchors the film, but the emotional center is Zhao Shuzhen, whose presence gives the story its warmth and ache. The movie never forces tears; it earns them through small gestures, silences, and the feeling that everyone is carrying something they can’t fully say out loud.
What makes it linger is its specificity. This is not just a movie about family or grief in the abstract; it’s about the particular pressures of being between cultures, between languages, and between versions of the truth. The result is a tender, beautifully observed film that stays with you long after it ends.
davidehrlich (4.5★) · 6143 likes
don’t wanna overhype this modest little film, but it cleared my skin, did my taxes, solved Brexit, fixed the Oscars, got the Starbucks guy to stop running, convinced Weezer to retire, killed Mitch McConnell & made me really hungry. do wish they'd nix the very final shot, as i feel it undercuts the ending a bit, but the closer a movie is to perfect the more i have to quibble.
Karsten (4.5★) · 3728 likes
Me laughing embarrassingly loud at a joke that took place in a graveyard is everything you need to know about this film. Lulu Wang is so good at writing conversations it’s not even funny. Nothing I say is gonna do this film justice, just please see it immediately.
Lucy (4.5★) · 3048 likes
“isn’t it wrong to lie?” family is so simplistically complex: grief, joy and despair are often all mixed together. this was so rhythmically calming, and i can’t remember the last time i’ve heard an audience burst into laughter and then stop on a dime to reflect. this is skillfully made and every performance deserves recognition, but as i wrap up my review i’m gonna leave you with three words: awkwafina academy award
siobhan (5★) · 2620 likes
the scene towards the end where nai nai is waving goodbye at the taxi as it drives away and everything goes silent..... yeah that shit makes me cry every single time
Patrick Willems (4★) · 2613 likes
Nai Nai is a STAR. Give her a franchise.
A similarly intimate immigrant-family drama that finds humor and heartbreak in everyday domestic life.
For its restrained emotion, cultural specificity, and aching reflections on identity and belonging.
Shares an Asian-American family lens, but expands it into a more maximalist blend of comedy, emotion, and generational conflict.
A foundational film about Chinese-American family ties, memory, and the emotional distance between generations.
A thoughtful immigrant-family story about living between cultures and negotiating inherited expectations.
A tender, humane portrait of aging, caregiving, and the quiet dignity of family-like devotion.
A classic meditation on family duty, aging parents, and the sadness of what cannot be fully expressed.
For viewers drawn to a family story that mixes warmth, humor, and devastating emotional turns.
A sharp, intimate family drama that captures the pain and comedy of private domestic conflict.
A coming-of-age film with similar emotional honesty, family friction, and affection beneath the arguments.
For its patient observation of family life and the way ordinary moments accumulate into emotional truth.
A grief-centered family film that balances sadness with awkward humor and emotional restraint.
family, grief, deception, cultural identity, immigration, generational bonds, diaspora, caregiving
dramedy, family dynamics, grief, immigrant experience, Asian-American, cross-cultural, bittersweet, ensemble, quietly emotional, indie