The Farewell’s story—about a Chinese American family keeping a terminal cancer diagnosis from their grandmother—might be familiar to you from its 2016 incarnation as a particularly good segment on This American Life. Now writer/director Lulu Wang’s The Farewell expands into a stunning portrait of a complicated, caring family that spans two cultures and continents. It might sound like kind of a downer, but I promise, at least half of the time I was laughing as Wang’s proxy Billi (Awkwafina) and her richly characterized family gathered around their Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) for a sudden, farcical wedding. by Suzette Smith