Review of Crazy Rich Asians

Almost, almost crossing the borders of romantic movie conventions, there are some surprising dramatic moments here. Almost, because (without giving away too much spoilers) some of the braver choices made in the book do not come back in the movie, one at the end can even be seen but were edited out at the last moment. Still, some unexpected serious moments between the Asian bling. Because there is bling, lots of it, but it shown mostly as pointless and depraving. Complaining about this is at the level of accusing David Lynch of showing off Hollywood in the LA drama Mulholland Dr. The rich people are almost all shown as total assholes. The ice cold mother and grandmother. The absent father. The cruel girlfriends. The persverse nephew. And do they atm up to NY's Rachel? No way. No sweet reconcilationd here. The most interesting part is how this semi-inspendent, mostly Malaysian, movie came together at all. So what the uneven pacing, mixed-up filming styles, actors seeming to be in different movies (compare the outrageous Awkwafina and Oliver, compared to bland male lead Henry Golding, and aggressive Constance Wu, at times qualifing for the succession of Daniel Craig as James Bond. Still, a different (non-Hollywood!) romcom, worth a watch. The innocence of all that sometimes reminds the viewer of India's cinema.