Sean Wang's 'Didi' Shines a Light on World of Early Skateboarding Videos

The new film 'Didi' has a focus on late 2000s internet skateboarding culture.

Source: Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures, LLC /

As time moves forward, more and more generations will begin to see their upbringing depicted on the movie screen. Such is the case now for any kid that grew up internet-obsessed in the late 2000s.

Sean Wang's new film, "Didi," is just that. It follows a 14-year-old Chris Wang, clearly a substitute for the director himself, in the summer of 2008 as he manages friendships, crushes and new hobbies.

A heavy focus of the movie is the skateboarding culture of that time and the rise of early internet trick videos.

At one of the points where the lead character, Chris, is at his lowest. He finds a group of skateboarders that are looking for someone to film them. Despite not having any experience, he agrees to be their guy.

An important character trait of Chris throughout the movie is that the group of people that he's going to see will heavily the influence what clothes he decides to wear. When going to meet up with his crush, he steals his sister's 'Paramore' t-shirt for example.

When going to meet up with the skateboarders, he puts on an 'Emerica' shirt to show his fellow skaters that he fits in.

One of the clearest influences on the film was multi-hyphenate Spike Jonze. Though most people may associate Jonze with his work on artistic movies like "Her" and "Being John Malkovic," he got his start with outdoors sports.

He, much like the character from the movie, got his start by filming skateboarders. There are direct references to Jonze in the film with Wang not trying to hide who his biggest influences were in his real life.

There is a funny sequence in the film where Chris is looking for tutorials on the internet on how to film skate videos and what words that skaters use. This brings a surge of relatability through the veins any viewer, that has maybe made themselves, more of an expert on a subject than they really were.

From calling tricks 'buttery' to attaching a fish-eye lens to his camera to capture his new friends wiping out and pulling off moves they didn't think possible, this segment feels really lived in for anyone that has spent an afternoon watching YouTube videos of cool skateboard tricks.

While some moments of the film may force the viewer to watch through their hands from relatable 'cringe' it's an instant classic coming-of-age film for a new generation of filmmakers.