‘The Wedding Banquet’ Review: Modern Reimagining of Queer Classic Mostly Finds Its Own Way with Funny New Guests
Carlos Aguilar When Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” was released back in 1993, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was still taking lives, marriage equality in the U.S.
was decades away, and queer representation in media remained limited. It was, certainly, a different time. Considering the progress made since — while not forgetting the fight to protect it from perpetual attacks — Andrew Ahn’s consistently amusing and winningly sincere reimagining of the classic for a 2025 audience finds the LGBTQ community in a dramatically improved place.
For starters, the characters in this new iteration can legally marry and become parents if they wish, which means conflict has to operate differently.
The pressure of societal norms hasn’t entirely disappeared, but the interpersonal squabbles of the quartet here (rather than the trio in Lee’s film) take precedence.After a second unsuccessful IVF treatment, Seattle lesbian couple Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) hit a wall as to how to proceed with their relationship.
