Directed by Taika Waititi
Boy (James Rolleston) lives on the east coast of New Zealand, in a small impoverished town where one person seems to have all the available jobs. It is 1984 and the eleven year old Maori boy is obsessed with Michael Jackson and his latest dance moves. Boy and his younger brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu) are both highly imaginative and their antics are hilarious even though there is an underlying seriousness. Rocky thinks that he has special powers and Boy has built his father up to be all sorts of heroic figures including a war veteran, a Samurai warrior, a deep-sea diver and a rugby captain.
This is Taika Waititi’s second feature film (after Eagle versus Shark) and he is the writer, director and star as Alamein, the boys’ deadbeat father who has just been released after spending seven years in prison for a bungled robbery. Along with the other three members of The Crazy Horse Gang, he returns to the coastal town in search of the buried takings from the robbery. It’s a coming-of-age film where Boy has to come to terms with the fact that his self-centred father actually is more childish than he is and unlikely to take on any of the responsibilities that have already fallen onto Boy’s shoulders.
Reminiscent of The Castle, this delightful parochial film mixes honesty and charm with humour, and the characters are all very endearing even though they are quite flawed. My Kiwi friends were laughing all through this film and even singing along in some places. It is easy to see why this New Zealand film won the Audience Award for Fiction Feature Film at the Sydney Film Festival for the first time in twenty years. Stay for the final credits for a super-funny, thrilling ending with a New Zealand twist!
Lezly Herbert
