On May 13, I had the privilege of attending the world premiere of 'The Sun is Also a Star'. The premiere was at The Grove movie theatre, which played in four separate theaters within the theatre.
From the moment I arrived, it was chaotic; there were hundreds of people in the priority line in front of the theatre. Since we had general tickets, not priority, we were sent somewhere else. We walked all the way down to Top Shop and then around the block to the end of the line. We were sure we weren't going to get in since there were hundreds of people in line. After some prayer, a random man in a Warner Brothers t-shirt walked up to the woman behind us and asked if she had a ticket. He then asked if it was a guaranteed ticket (which it wasn't). He then gave tickets to a couple of us. Long story short 1iota workers freaked out about the man giving tickets without their knowledge, but we got to keep the tickets and got in after some time.
When we got into the theatre, we were given free popcorn and soda. Then after sitting down awhile both stars of the movie came into the theatre, Charles Melton and Yara Shahidi. Melton gave candy to a couple of rows of people and then they gave a speech thanking the audience.
Movie Review -- MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The Sun is Also a Star is an adaptation of Nicola Yoon's novel. While I have never read the novel I would give the film a 6/10. The story follows, Natasha Kingsley and Daniel Bae and their love story which consists of over a day and a half.
Natasha Kingsley and her family are from Jamaica and are in New York City with visas. The story starts the day before they are going to be deported back to Jamaica on a random deportation check (which is voluntary), after 9 years in America.
Natasha doesn't want to accept that she is going to leave the home she had come to love. She goes to the deportation office but since neither she nor any of her family was born in America the case is closed. She pleads her story to the man, and he gives her a card for a lawyer he knows. She calls the secretary of the lawyer, who says he can most likely help her.
We then switch to Daniel Bae's story, his family immigrated from Korea but they are U.S. citizens. We learn that he has an interview to get into med school and that his mom is a perfectionist. His mother asks him a million questions to see if he is prepared for his interview, and corrects him if he isn't.
Fast forward to when the two stories meet at the train station. He sees her and basically goes to find her. He sees her again on the subway and gets off at her stop. A car hits the bicycle rider in front of him and is about to hit her when Daniel pulls her to the ground, saving her.
From this moment on, he tries to prove to her that he can make her believe in love by making her fall in love with him by the end of the day. They travel through the city and ask each other questions.
I don't want to say what happens after this or what the ending is, but it's obvious by the trailer that this film is a love story. The cinematography was great, the dialogue was good, and you can tell this film wasn't a super low budget.
The fact that this story was about two people whose families immigrated to the U.S was such an eye-opener. The parents of both families worked hard to bring their families to the U.S for a better life, which was inspiring. I also loved that the story showed the difficulties that happen with interracial couples and how families react (this is shown through the way that Daniel's family reacts). It's important to show that it's ok for people of every ethnicity to date/marry!
My only critiques are on both Melton and Shahidi's performances. Shahidi seemed to play Natasha similarly to the way she plays her character on Grown-ish. In saying that, she wasn't a horrible actress, she just gave similar tones in the way she plays both characters. Melton played his character pretty well but at moments he seemed to be a little awkward. I couldn't tell if his character was just awkward or what, but when he was showing confidence it seemed cringy at times.
Those were only small critiques though, the main part that bothered me was that they fell 'in love' in a day's time. I'm sorry but if you meet someone and think you are in love after a day, you should think further. I have never been in love, nor have I come close, but it's important to get to know the person for longer than a day. If you don't really know someone, their personality, or their interests is it love, or is it infatuation?
Overall I wouldn't have paid to see this movie at the theatre but I would pay to rent it. What I will say though, is it gave me the feels.
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