Fire Island filmmaker Andrew Ahn follows up his streamer sleeper hit with The Wedding Banquet, a contemporary remake of Ang Lee’s 90s rom-com of the same name. While I can’t comment on how faithful this adaptation is to its source material, outsiders (like myself) will enjoy Ahn’s genre-clashing family dramedy.

Much of The Wedding Banquet can be perceived as a farce – misunderstandings and personality swaps build up to a grand charade where the masqueraders will benefit from fooling everybody. However, Ahn reshapes these over-the-top conventions for a drama that also acknowledges infertility, as well as same-sex marriage and how its deemed (or exploited) by different cultures. However, while the film takes its time to find its footing – sometimes repeating the same confrontations to build character or add on to a stressful dynamic – the movie’s momentum hits a stride once the plot is in play. The screenplay, while guilty of using convenient devices to move the narrative along, finds ways to hit genuine emotional beats without being manipulative, and the writing (by Ahn and Ang Lee’s original co-writer James Schamus) never forgets to find the humour in a scene.

Pardon the absence of plot details, but it’s a deliberate decision. The Wedding Banquet offers so many surprises that I would feel bad if I started revealing them. Just sit back and prepare to watch one of this year’s hidden gems.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie