Although Seo and Ahn are able to tap into David's confusion and agony -- especially when filtered through the lens of his damningly hopeful parents -- there's never much more to David (or his story) than that.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 2, 2017

Writer-director Andrew Ahn has made a confident, assured, low-key debut that's a textbook example of how to make a compelling small-budget movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2016

The assured feature debut by Andrew Ahn is also the story of a young gay man's sexual awakening, and its sensitive lead performance affectingly expresses the tension between tradition and personal identity.

| Aug 25, 2016

There's even a sense that not enough happens but the repression-a lot of glancing, no touching-feels right with the tone, and especially within the cultural context, of the film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2016

Even with its flaws, Spa Night is an extremely personal film. We need more of those.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2016

It would be easy to categorize this cool, exquisitely observant first feature by the Korean-American filmmaker Andrew Ahn as a gay movie. But it is much more.

| Aug 18, 2016

Together, Ahn and cinematographer Ki Jin Kim approach moments of sensuality subtly, as the camera languidly wades into the steamy saunas and the monochromatic showers where David's interest in the unknown begins to percolate.

| Aug 18, 2016

Though it's a shade too vague, Spa Night does a fine job of articulating the existential ennui of someone who loves his parents but knows he can never be what they were expecting.

| Original Score: B | Aug 17, 2016

There are no haters here, no bullies, and the only real enemy is the self-repression that plagues the shy, closeted Korean Angeleno teenager at its center.

| Aug 17, 2016

It recombines elements of the emigrant saga and the coming-of-age story into a searching, fresh-faced portrait.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 14, 2016

Gay or straight, practically anyone an relate to the dynamic between David's mom and Mrs. Baek, who indiscreetly brags that her son Eddie (Tae Song) is currently enrolled at USC, suggesting that David visit him there.

| Jan 29, 2016

An impressive if extremely subtle first film.

| Jan 27, 2016

Ahn's muted approach to his material, coupled with the passivity of the film's lead character, David Cho (Joe Seo), leaves Spa Night feeling too cold to fully engage.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2016