Spa Night
First screened in September 2016
Director: Andrew Ahn. Cast: Joe Seo, Cho Youn Ho, Haerry Kim, Song Tae, Chung Ho Young, Linda Han, Eric Jeong, Janice Pak, Angie Kim, Esteban Andres Cruz, Park Sun, Kim Yong, Keira Kim, Collin Lim. Screenplay: Andrew Ahn. Twitter Capsule:
Where Beautiful Thing meets Tsai Ming-liang. Soft-spoken but sharp, ambitious, surprising. Appealing even when uneasy.
VOR:④
Bold and rare as a tale of sexually questioning Asian American men. That it treats class, desire, religion and race so nimbly is a miracle.
Still an under-regarded contribution to U.S. queer cinema of the 2010s, not least for its understated yet intricate imbrication of pressures around race, sexuality, class, national identity, gender, and class, all while preserving David as an individualized character study and not just a stand-in for an easily projected group of peers. Camera adopts interesting angles, revealing of tight-lipped psychologies and affects as well as thematic conversations, and sound sometimes echoes, sometimes counters, and often complicates what we see. Editing rhythms, including unexpectedly abrupt cuts, also serve story and characterization. The kind of movie that could easily slide into a very Sundance template, which it doesn't in every single way avoid, but the craftsmanship of direction as well as ensemble performance carry the movie much higher than that. Always a pleasure to revisit and to teach. I hope David is finding his frequency somewhere, if he hasn't already. Grade:B+
Awards:
Sundance Film Festival: Special Jury Prize for Acting (Seo)
Film Independent Spirit Awards: John Cassavetes Award
