Lily + Bowen rom-com delight

Here is something I didn’t know I needed, a rom-com starring Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang. Yes! Lily! Be in something light-hearted for once! 

Lily and Bowen are set to star in a remake of Ang Lee’s classic 1993 comedy, The Wedding Banquet. The film is about a gay man who plans to marry a woman to 1) placate his parents, and 2) help her get a green card. Everything goes sideways when his parents show up to plan his wedding, and he has to hide his actual partner from them. Gay people pretending to be straight as a comedy of manners was a big thing in the Nineties, I’m VERY curious to see how they update this trope for the 2020s.

Andrew Ahn is set to direct, having previously worked with Bowen Yang on Fire Island. He also directed the exquisitely sensitive Driveways starring Hong Chau and Brian Dennehy. Basically no one saw it when it came out in 2019, but you can stream it on Prime Video, Peacock, and Sling. Do yourself the favor and watch Driveways.

I love this combination of people. I don’t think anyone can top Ang Lee, but Andrew Ahn has a knack for character-driven drama and comedy, so he should be able to do something interesting of his own. And Bowen Yang ALWAYS makes me laugh—his SNL sketches are an instant pick me up, when needed—and it will be so refreshing to see Lily Gladstone in something other than a depressing drama. 

Speaking of Lily, though, she’s Emmy eligible this year with Under the Bridge, though it won’t be a head-to-head repeat of the Oscars where she goes up against Emma Stone. As Lainey mentioned yesterday, Emma will compete in the series dramatic actress category for The Curse, while Lily will submit as a supporting actress in a limited series alongside her co-star, Riley Keough (Bridge is a true ensemble, there’s no opening to argue lead vs supporting this time). So while both Emma and Lily could be at the Emmys in September, they won’t be competitors this time. The Emmys are always wildly competitive because of the quality of television these days—Anna Sawai coming through!—but the television academy has a chance to do the funniest thing and reward Lily Gladstone after the Oscars couldn’t get it together. Real talk, though, I bet Shōgun dominates. 

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