Director: Bing Liu

Stars: Sebiye Behtiyar, Fred Hechinger

A traumatised young refugee woman glimpses the possibility of a normal life in a picture that combines social realism and lush visuals. Aishe (Behtiyar) is a Muslim Uyghur immigrant who has made her way to the US from China, and who is now eking out a living working without papers in an exploitative restaurant in New York’s Chinatown. In voiceover Aishe talks to her absent father about her determination to get on. One evening she meets Skinner (Gladiator 2’s Echinger), a troubled twenty-three-year-old Army vet with PTSD who has returned from three tours in the Middle East, and who is given to hanging around Times Square. Although initially weary, Aishe is won over by Skinner’s willingness to connect, and a relationship begins. While the two outsiders try and make it work, Aishe attempts to secure residency papers. Despite being adapted from a book by Atticus Lish, the picture is more vibes and moments of grace than incident and dialogue, with cinematographer Ante Cheng’s swoonsome rendering of the dilapidated locales, recalling the work of Wong Kar-wai at his most romantic. The leads do good work but lack the requisite chemistry and at two hours the picture feels overextended.

David Willoughby

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