Boy

Considering how close we are I'm surprised that more New Zealand films are not released here. This is their most popular film ever so maybe they only send over the best ones.

In 2002 New Zealand had great success with a coming of age tale about a young girl called 'Whale Rider'. This film is kind of a male version but with more of a comedic tone. This is supposed to be a semi-autobiographical film by writer/director Taika Waititi. But the way it play out I'm not so sure. Some of the characters, especially Boy's father Alamein, played by Taika are very wacky and strange. Some of his behavior is very questionable. There are a few things that worried me about the film. Mainly that a house full of very young children are left on their own for an extended period of time with 11 year-old Boy looking after them. He does a good job of looking after them and their seems to be an aunt that is 'around' but no clear sense that the kids have adult supervision. Otherwise this is an excellent and very sweet story of a boy who finds out who his dad really is. It is really funny too and Taika has used some animation to wonderfully accentuate the story.

As mentioned above Boy's father as played by Taika is very strange. You wonder if a person like him would really exist or Taika has exaggerated him for comedic effect. The real stars of the film though are the kids, especially James Rolleston as Boy and Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu as his brother Rocky. Both give very naturalistic performances that make you think they are behaving like real children.

An excellent comedy from our cousins across the Tasman. While the characters are a bit strange it still has a very emotional story at its core.