Metacritic score: 74
Few Hollywood romantic comedies have hit the big screen bearing more expectations than Crazy Rich Asians, which is the first contemporary English-language Hollywood movie with an almost all-Asian cast in a quarter-century. (The last was 1993’s The Joy Luck Club.) In risk-averse Hollywood, that means the film’s reception had huge implications for Asian and Asian-American actors and filmmakers in all kinds of genres.
But all that pressure pressed this film into a diamond: Directed by Jon M. Chu, Crazy Rich Asians is fun, funny, gorgeous, and swoon-worthy. It’s got a terrific cast, glamorous locations, witty jokes, and a story with a lot of heart. And on top of all that, it may actually succeed in proving to Hollywood that both Asian-centered stories and romantic comedies deserve much more attention.
