4K/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Reviews

DVD Review: “The Sun Is Also A Star” Shines An Unsettling Light On The Evanescent


 

College-bound romantic Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley meet – and fall for each other – over one magical day amidst the fervor and flurry of New York City. Sparks immediately fly between these two strangers, who might never have met had fate not given them a little push. With just hours left on the clock in what looks to be her last day in the U.S., Natasha is fighting against her family’s deportation just as fiercely as she’s fighting her growing feelings for Daniel.

Based on the novel by Nicola Yoon, “The Sun Is Also a Star” chronicles the story of two teenagers with almost nothing in common who, in the course of a single day, somehow fall in love anyway. The movie exposes the open secret about the ephemeral nature of human existence.

Deus ex machina, the unifying thread in the film, literally means ‘god from the machine.’ It describes how an unexpected power or event intervenes to resolve an apparently hopeless situation. This plot device provides the mechanism that brings our star-crossed lovers together on their twenty-four-hour life-altering sojourn.

Yara Shahidi plays Natasha Kingsley, a dreamer, whose family must leave the U.S. the next day, having exhausted all other options to remain legal residents. Although Tasha (Shahidi) does not want to give up, she must also grapple with the wilting resignation of her father (Gbenga Akinnagbe) regarding the prospect of returning to Jamaica after nine years in the U.S.

Charles Melton as Daniel Bae embodies his parents’ desire for a better life for their Korean children. Keong Sim and Cathy Shim as father and mother groomed Daniel for the medical profession his entire life. After meeting Tasha, as Daniel begins to reexamine all of his previous, long-held assumptions, his father criticizes out of hand the nature of provincial American individuality.

Daniel’s friend Omar (Camrus Johnson) obliges as a useful sounding board for his friend’s philosophical musings concerning life and love. Sprinkled throughout, in an empathetic performance, John Leguizamo provides a reassuring and stabilizing figure to Tasha and Daniel as both an immigration lawyer and Dartmouth alumni interviewer.

Periodic quotes and a cosmic backstory add cerebral flavor to the mix of simultaneously troubling and thought-provoking themes. Carl Sagan once remarked, for example, “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”

To get a sense of humanity’s role in the grand sweep of history beginning with the origin of the universe 13.8 billion years ago, I encourage interested viewers to read the fine work of non-fiction by David Christian entitled “Origin Story.” The book lays out in barely 300 pages how Homo sapiens exist under the false pretense that their mere presence constitutes the defining epoch of the universe. Zooming out, looking at the bigger picture, quasi-immortality may or may not be in the cards for humans. Either way, however, the fact remains that individual lifetimes flash by in the briefest of moments, whether we can see it or not.

Directed by Ry Russo-Young and adapted for the screen by Tracy Oliver, “The Sun Is Also a Star” conjures a worthwhile variation of the romantic tale. Although the pace of the narrative periodically falters, the unexpectedly hopeful yet still ambiguous ending stays true to the overall sentiment – providing just the right measure of closure. The story reminds us that time is fleeting, and we should make the most of our day in the sun. As Walter Payton famously intoned, “Tomorrow is promised to no one.” Or more simply, “Carpe diem.”

 

Now available on Digital HD and on DVD August 20th

 

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Thomas Tunstall

Thomas Tunstall, Ph.D. is the senior research director at the Institute for Economic Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is the principal investigator for numerous economic and community development studies and has published extensively. Dr. Tunstall recently completed a novel entitled "The Entropy Model" (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982920610/?coliid=I1WZ7N8N3CO77R&colid=3VCPCHTITCQDJ&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy, and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.