We Used to Take the Long Way Home (2025)

-Written by John Cajio.

2026 SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! 

We Used to Take the Long Way Home is not a long film. At the end of its brief thirteen-minute runtime, I found myself continuing to be frustratingly curious. Usually, that’s a good thing. But in this case, I think thirteen minutes is about right. 

Written and directed by An Nguyen, We Used to Take the Long Way Home tells of a brief meetup between four friends—Linh (Nguyễn Phúc Thảo Hiền), Thiện (Tăng Lịnh Thiên Hoàng), Dũng (Trần Công Thành), and Nhi (Vũ Thu Giang)—after Linh returns to Vietnam on family business after having moved away to America for several years. 

The primary strength of the film is also its primary weakness. It’s a film about teenagers, and I found myself shaking my head at the realistically foolish choices that the characters made throughout, and the dumb conversations. It’s clear that Writer-Director Nguyen never forgot what it meant to be a teenager and captured the essence of their bravado and awkwardness with aplomb. 

The boys (Thiện and Dũng) spend a good chunk of their time trying to impress the girls in variously dumb ways. Oftentimes, it’s by trying to ride dangerously on their motorbikes, or looking especially aloof. The girls, for their part, usually try to act way too impressed or super cute. 

The conversations are equally mundane and immature in the way that only teenagers can have. Even though they are older teenagers (or perhaps very early twenties), they are not at all curious about what each other got up to since they last saw each other—especially Linh, who had been in America for several years. Instead, they are much more into rehashing past hurts, past what ifs, and past joys. 

The fact that Nyugen was able to capture the authenticity of the immaturity of teenagers so well in her writing is impressive. 

The entire film’s presentation lends itself well to the themes and nature of the film. It’s a lighthearted film about four friends reconnecting after some time away. I felt like I was reliving memories that I never had. I may not have had quite those exact same conversations when I was a dumbass teenager, but the ones I had were surely cut from the same cloth. When the writing hits close to home, it stirs up old memories and lost thoughts in a dreamy sort of way. We Used to Take the Long Way Home does not suck. 

Written & Directed by An Nguyen.

Starring Nguyễn Phúc Thảo Hiền, Tăng Lịnh Thiên Hoàng, Trần Công Thành, and Vũ Thu Giang.

7/10 = WATCH IT FOR FREE (IT DOES NOT SUCK)