Taglines: Love is a universe all of its own.
“Black-ish” and Charles Melton of “Riverdale” make the leap from television with aplomb as opposites who aren’t just attracted to each other—they literally collide on the sidewalk. Granted, Melton’s hunky Daniel had seen Yara Shahidi’s radiant Natasha earlier that morning in Grand Central Terminal and stalked her through a few different neighborhoods, which we’re meant to think is sweet rather than creepy. But still—they meet cute at a moment when they’re both on the brink of big changes.
She’s the daughter of Jamaican immigrants whose whole family is about to be deported the next day after an ICE raid. He’s the son of Korean immigrants who’s about to visit a Dartmouth alumnus for an interview that might help him secure a spot at the prestigious university. She’s a pragmatist with a head for science who’s fascinated by astronomy. He’s a romantic with a heart for poetry who’d rather do anything than become the doctor his parents want him to be. She doesn’t believe in love; he believes in nothing but. They are ideas, these two, but they’re also pleasant company.
Naturally, as they get to chatting and flirting, they realize how different they are. But when Daniel bets Natasha that he can make her fall in love with him by the end of the day, it’s only a matter of when, not if, despite the fact that she has a ticking clock of her own. In the vein of Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise,” Natasha and Daniel walk and talk through the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. And they do have decent chemistry with each other, even as they’re saddled with some cringey, on-the-nose dialogue.
Daniel has always been the good son, the good student, living up to his parents’ high expectations. Never a poet. Or a dreamer. But when he sees her, he forgets all that. Something about Natasha makes him think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store – for both of them. Every moment has brought them to this single moment. A million futures lie before them. Which one will come true?
The Sun Is Also a Star is a 2019 American teen drama film directed by Ry Russo-Young and written by Tracy Oliver, based on the young adult novel of the same name by Nicola Yoon. The film stars Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton, and follows a young couple who fall in love, while one of their families faces deportation. It was theatrically released in the United States on May 17, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $6.8 million worldwide.
Film Review: The Sun is Also a Star
A few years ago, I was giving a talk somewhere, and a gentleman in the audience asked, “What is the role of free will in criticism?” I didn’t have a good answer, but the question came back to haunt me during a recent screening of “The Sun Is Also a Star,” a film much concerned with issues of chance, destiny and choice.
What, I wondered, had brought me to that dark room where two nice-looking teenagers (Yara Shahidi of “black-ish” and Charles Melton of “Riverdale”) were canoodling in a karaoke booth, and then on an empty Roosevelt Island tram car hovering above the East River? Was it fate? A series of decisions I had made earlier in my life, or that someone else had made for me? Might I find the answers in the writings of Carl Sagan or the poems of Emily Dickinson?
If you are fascinated by this line of inquiry, you might enjoy this super-sincere young-adult romance, directed by Ry Russo-Young from Tracy Oliver’s screenplay and based on Nicola Yoon’s best-selling novel. But philosophical interests aren’t a prerequisite and may in fact interfere with the business of watching the two main characters banter, flirt and then, at last, make out. That’s not a spoiler: If you didn’t know that Shahidi and Melton were destined to make out within 10 minutes of seeing them onscreen, you have no hope of passing whatever class this is.
Natasha Kingsley (Shahidi) lives in Brooklyn, Daniel Bae (Melton) in Queens. One radiantly sunlit morning, they both have urgent business in Manhattan. Daniel has an alumni interview that he hopes will get him into Dartmouth, a first step in realizing his parents’ dream that he’ll become a doctor. His own ambitions are more literary, but as the dutiful first-generation son of Korean immigrants, he accepts his destiny.
Natasha, whose family came to New York from Jamaica when she was in grade school, is on a desperate mission to prevent their deportation. Her parents (Miriam A. Hyman and Gbenga Akinnagbe) are resigned to leaving — they are scheduled to depart the day after most of the movie’s action takes place — but their daughter is determined to find someone to handle the family’s legal appeal so they can stay in the city she loves. (The someone turns out to be a subdued John Leguizamo.)
The filmmakers love the city, too. Their ardor is expressed in aerial and street-level shots that highlight the romance of New York without sanding off too much of the grit. (Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the director of photography.) Not that grittiness is the aesthetic here. It’s all warmth and magic and smart, striving kids taking themselves seriously so the audience can have a good time. The story and its trappings feel a little generic, the dialogue studiously bland and the characters and their problems curiously weightless, in spite of gestures in the direction of real-world issues.
Natasha and Daniel are sealed in a protective bubble, cushioned in sentimental pop music of various styles and eras — would a Gen Z kid really pick “Crimson and Clover” at karaoke? I don’t know, but it kind of works — and filmed as if they were the most adorable puppies ever to snuggle on Instagram. They are so appealing — I mean, his last name is Bae, and she never makes a joke about it — that you will totally believe that he is a budding poet and that her thing is astronomy. I’m not saying you wouldn’t believe it otherwise, but the passions that these two proclaim for things that aren’t each other seem a bit decorative. They do argue some about fate, love, free will and the nature of the cosmos, but this is mostly so their mouths can get some exercise before they start kissing.
There are complications — canceled appointments, Daniel’s racist jerk of an older brother (Jake Choi), a stalled subway train, fate and family — but nothing all that complicated. “The Sun Is Also a Star,” like its title, doesn’t benefit from overthinking. The themes serve the mood, which is charming. You could choose to believe otherwise, of course, but why be that way?
The Sun Is Also a Star (2019)
Directed by: Ry Russo-Young
Starring: Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jake Choi, Faith Logan, Camrus Johnson, Cathy Shim, Miriam A. Hyman, Anais Lee, Annie Pisapia, Matthias Sebastiun Garry
Screenplay by: Tracy Oliver
Production Design by: Wynn Thomas
Cinematography by: Autumn Durald
Film Editing by: Joe Landauer
Costume Design by: Deirdra Elizabeth Govan
Set Decoration by: Alexandra Mazur
Art Direction by: Christopher Minard
Music by: Herdís Stefánsdóttir
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some suggestive content and language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: May 17, 2019
Visits: 27
