THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR (2019)

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Russo-Young
Cast: Yara Shahidi, Charles Melton, Jake Choi, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Kay Day, Faith Logan
RunTime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: PG
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website:

Opening Day: 16 May 2019

Synopsis: 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. But will fate be enough to take these teens from star-crossed to lucky in love? 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 as fiercely as she’s fighting her budding feelings for Daniel, who is working just as hard to convince her they are destined to be together.

Movie Review:

Among the many things that it tries to be, ‘The Sun Is Also A Star’ is probably to us a love letter to the city of New York most of all. Oh yes, there was a time when New York was the perfect setting for many a Hollywood romance, though that appeal has faded somewhat in recent years. Thanks to cinematographer Autumn Durald, the city looks just as charming and mesmerising as we like to imagine it to be. Both by day and by night, and through neighbourhoods such as Harlem, Chinatown and Greenwich Village, Durald’s bird’s-eye views of Manhattan convey the hugeness and intimacy of the city that no other film in recent memory has.

Yet we hardly think that was the primary intent of the big-screen adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s bestselling YA novel, which at its core, is a love story of two people who are destined to be with each other. On one hand, the 17-year-old Jamaican-born Natasha (Yara Shahidi of ‘Grown-ish’), who now lives with her undocumented immigrant family in Brooklyn, is fascinated with the stars because they are the basis of astronomer Carl Sagan’s scientific method; on the other, the first-generation Korean American Daniel Bae (Charles Melton of ‘Riverdale’) views that the stars hold the answers to our fate, and it is no surprise that his ambition is to be a poet. Over the course of a single day, these two characters will meet, banter, and fall in love with each other, with the only real question being whether they will stay together by the time the day is over.

It’s a premise some may say resembles that of Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Sunrise’ trilogy, and sure enough, there are unmistakable echoes of that here; yet both director Ry-Russo Young and screenwriter Tracy Oliver conjure up some meet-cute moments that will surely leave you smiling – including one where Daniel serenades Natasha in a karaoke room within Koreatown with a cover of ‘Crimson and Clover’, another where Daniel and Natasha explore the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History, and yet another where they take the tram which crosses the East River between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. Of course, Durald’s photography makes it all look oh-so-pretty, but there is an easy chemistry between Shahidi and Melton which is undeniably winsome.

On their own too, both stars have plenty of charisma to boot, which makes the contrivance go down much easier. Indeed, despite the sincerity with which the proceedings are staged, more cynical-minded viewers will no doubt roll their eyes at how Daniel first meets Natasha by pulling her out of the way of a speeding BMW in Chinatown, or how he is given to saying things like ‘don’t forget to open your heart to destiny’ with an absolutely straight face, or how he asks her to give him a day to prove that they are in love. Even though it is perfectly in the nature of his character, it’s hard to ignore the corny YA tropes, so it is all the more gratifying that they are delivered by two appealing stars with plenty of pizazz.

In fact, what turns out more interesting narrative-wise than how they fall in love is Natasha and Daniel’s respective tussles with their immediate families. Whereas Natasha is frustrated that her parents aren’t fighting harder to stop their imminent (read: tomorrow) deportation, Daniel has to decide on the eve of his college interview with a Dartmouth alum whether to honour his parents’ wishes for him to become a doctor or follow his own heart of pursuing his (literally) poetic ambitions. It isn’t by coincidence that both of them are the children of immigrants, and it is to the filmmakers’ credit that the political subtext is handled with nuance and sensitivity, such that our sympathy for their plight is earned and not forced.

Deserving of special mention are the occasional montages meant to highlight the cultural dynamics, such as one which explains how Korean immigrants came to develop a semi-monopoly on ‘black hair care’ in the Harlem neighbourhood, and another which tells of how Natasha’s parents met and got married in Jamaica before moving to New York to find a better life for their children. These are but a number of the visually arresting ‘chapter breaks’ interspersed over the course of the film that, while jarring, bring a welcome burst of verve and change of pace.

So, while this was intended first and foremost as a YA romance, ‘The Sun Is Also A Star’ manages to overcome the trappings of its genre by smart casting, sharp direction and most significantly, a great sense of place. Like we said at the start, we’ve not seen New York captured as lively, beautiful and fascinating as we have here in quite a while, and we suspect that is also because Russo-Young is herself a New York native. You don’t have to be a teenager or a romantic at heart to appreciate this YA adaptation; by being a both topical immigrant drama and a New York love letter in addition to a standard romance, you’ll likely fall for it one way or another.

Movie Rating:

(A beautiful love letter to New York City, this teenage romance boasts smart casting, sharp direction and a great sense of place to overcome its YA trappings)

Review by Gabriel Chong