Boy movie review from modmove

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Boy
Boy is Kiwi director Taika Waititi's follow up to his excellent tragicomedy, Eagle vs Shark and is New Zealand's highest grossing local film to date (yep bigger than Once Were Warriors, Whale Rider and The World's Fastest Indian). Set in 1984 in Hicksville (or is that Hecksvelle) NZ, a time of Michael Jackson worship and where kids are named Rocky, Chardonay, Dallas, Dynasty (and Falcon Crest) or just plain ‘Boy’. Boy (James Rolleston) idolises his absent father, Alamein (played by the director), fantasizing him as a war hero, a deep-sea diver and a prison escapee who broke his bonds with but a spoon as his tool. Oh and he can also dance just like Michael Jackson (to whom he's also related). But when Alamein returns home (albeit fleetingly), Boy realises his father is disappointingly far from what he imagined.

Like Eagle vs Shark before it, Boy trades on a self-deprecatory, introspective style (attributes sadly long absent from Aussie cinema) and a delicate mixture of tragedy and comedy. Such a combination is a delicate balancing act, however, and Boy has a tendency to overstretch the comic aspects to compensate for its overbearing dramatic elements. Eagle vs Shark walked this fine line much more admirably and this is largely due to its central performance by Loren Horsley (who also co-wrote the story Waititi). By contrast, Boy suffers somewhat by its reliance on a chiefly youngster's performances and this costs the film the degree of charm required to lift it out of the gloom.

Regardless, though, there is still plenty to enjoy here. Waititi continues his penchant for entertaining off-the-wall animation intercuts and the film is packed full of little vignettes of clichéd Kiwi culture including a Michael Jackson-inspired Thriller Haka which is a cracker. The central theme of how we idolise our parents disproportionately to reality also hits close to home.

For a small independent movie that hits the funny bone and the heart in almost equal measure, you can do a lot worse than this. Recommended.
Stuart Jamieson
www.boythemovie.co.nz


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