Parents' Guide to Dream

This sports comedy has some heart, but it feels rushed and a little sloppy. Dream suffers from not quite knowing what kind of tone it wants to strike, ultimately landing on playful, quirky, and light, despite the serious issues it points to. Thus, some of the comedy doesn't come across as genuine as it wants to, at times punching down. Further, the juxtaposition of serious and playful can feel too jarring, as these moments sometimes suggest that the situations surrounding these unhoused men are easily explained and minimized by their quirky, odd, and comical personalities. And while the movie tries to delve into some of the lives of the unhoused men who make up the soccer team, each backstory risks stereotyping homelessness in various ways, even if the film means well. For what it's worth, it clearly does.

The primary messages of the film are about undying spirit, compassion, and teamwork, and largely, the film succeeds, but by the end, it's hard not to feel like the messages should have been something else. There are moments that flash more important serious critiques of South Korean social norms and culture that point to how unfairly many Koreans treat unhoused people and the issue itself, but again, these are few in number and brief. And just a brief note about the language used in the film: for unhoused people the film uses "homeless," as the writers clarify during a brief epilogue that South Koreans used to say "street people" instead, but stopped using that term because it "minimized the housing problem."