It's that time of year when I try to cover a romance movie or two, and the only decent ones lately seem to be Asian LGBT romances. So let's get to it.
"A Nice Indian Boy" is my first Roshan Sethi film. It's a sweet, very modest little romantic comedy about an Indian-American doctor named Naveen (Karan Soni) whose romance with a photographer, Jay (Jonathan Groff), is hampered by his anxieties over how his traditional parents, Megha (Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel) will react. There are also tensions with his sister Arundhati (Sunita Mani), who recently got married, and is upset that Naveen gets more freedom with his life choices than she does.
Even if you aren't at all familiar with any of the Indian customs or traditions in this film, "A Nice Indian Boy" follows the template of a typical cross-cultural romantic comedy so exactly, I can't imagine anyone will be confused for a moment. The immigrant family dynamic is instantly relatable. The communication and trust issues in Naveen and Jay's relationship are instantly recognizable. Jay is clearly an impossible ideal boyfriend - a white American guy who was raised by Indian foster parents, so he not only speaks Hindi, but is in many ways more Indian than Naveen is. Sure, he has just enough minor negative traits to put Naveen's parents on the defensive at first, but is there any question that they'll eventually accept him with open arms?
"A Nice Indian Boy" is very predictable and follows the template of a typical heterosexual screen romance awfully closely, but I feel pretty lenient towards it because framing an Indian LGBT relationship in these terms to help normalize it is surely part of the point. Also, it's very apparent that the budget was tiny, and this was a personal passion project. The aim here is to present a pleasant fantasy romance where Jonathan Groff sings "Tujhe Dehka To Yeh Jana Sanam" to Karan Soni, and everything ends with a big Indian wedding. Sure, I could ask uncomfortable questions like why nobody questions why Arundhati keeps showing up to family dinners and events without her husband, but in the end it doesn't matter. The performances are good, with Zarna Garg and Harish Patel getting some especially lovely moments together as the deeply concerned parents, who get to affirm their own love story in the process of sorting out their messy relationships with their children. It's very broad, very inviting, and very approachable for everybody.
On to the remake of "The Wedding Banquet," which immediately distinguishes itself as more progressive and more directly targeting the LGBT audience than the 1993 original directed by Ang Lee. Instead of a gay man marrying a straight woman in a sham marriage, this time both of the participants in the sham marriage are LGBT. Seattle based Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-Chan) live in the garage apartment of a house occupied by Chris's best friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone), who are trying to get pregnant by IVF. Min, the estranged grandchild of a rich Korean industrialist, is called home by his grandmother Ja Young (Young Yuh-jung) to join the family company. Min wants to stay in Seattle and proposes to Chris, but Chris isn't ready to commit. So, Min decides to wed Angela in a sham marriage and pay for the IVF treatments in return.
James Schamus returns to co-write the new version with director Andrew Ahn, which makes the case that even with all the gains that the LGBT community has made over the past thirty years, romantic and parent-child relationships can still be very difficult. Angela has trouble connecting to her mother May (Joan Chen), who has made her whole identity about being a supportive PFLAG mom. She's also not sure about becoming a mother herself, which causes friction with Lee. Meanwhile, in a nice subversion, it turns out that Ja-Young is not only aware that Min is gay, she ends up helping with the ruse for his sake. Young Yuh-jung's performance is the best thing about the movie. After a meandering first act, everything snaps into focus when Ja Young shows up, immediately figures out what is going on, and calls out all of these youngsters for being a pack of idiots. I adore every second she is onscreen.
The 2025 "Wedding Banquet" is generally messier and more sprawling than the 1993 version, juggling more characters and storylines and issues. It's not as cohesive, and definitely not as funny, but there are some good farcical moments, and a few memorable zingers. I like that we get a Korean wedding this time around, instead of a Chinese one. And in the end, the movie's also got plenty of heart, which is what matters most.
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