The Farewell Review
Writer/director Lulu Wang brings us the story of her grandmother's terminal cancer diagnosis in which she had around 3 to 4 months left to live. The story is framed around a lie in which the family must not tell her of her illness.
The Farewell is one of the most personal and important movies ever made. As I kept watching, I found myself realizing more and more that I've never seen Chinese culture portrayed in such detail in a mainstream Western release before. It's an eclectic mix of Chinese, American and European filmmaking backed up by some incredible and authentic writing and performances from Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, and Jiang Yongbo just to name a few and is inspired by the works of realist filmmakers like Mike Leigh.
As blunt and bleak as the subject matter is, the movie takes a lot of time to find joy and humour in things that you wouldn't expect from a story like this. It's a masterful balance of tone that a lot of storytellers struggle with and Lulu Wang pulls it off completely. Watching The Farewell is like sitting down with a well written literary novel. Every family member and background character is a fully realized person and every decision the main characters make involve layers upon layers of performance and deception. There's also a great use of colour, symbolism, dense set designs, distant and observant cinematography from Anna Franquesa Solano, and sharp editing all accompanied by one of if not the best film soundtrack and score of 2019 by Alex Weston, Mykal Kilgore, Elayna Boynton, Fredo Viola, Hera Hyesang Park, and Lulu Wang herself featuring music from Beethoven and Leonard Cohen mixing together modern romantic western classical music with an American gospel sound.
The Farewell is incredible and its ending is one of my favourite endings in a movie ever. It's a must watch and essential to the cinematic canon. Maybe it's too soon to tell, but I think The Farewell is a masterpiece.