Boy (2010)

Taika Waititi is far and away one of my favourite directors working today. He has me contemplating watching a Thor movie, which I never thought would happen. I don't think their are many people working in film with the same grasp of comic direction that he just has. Boy is one of his earlier works, an evolved version of his short film Two Cars, One Night. It's easy to see Waititi's evolution as a filmmaker when you watch this against one of his newer works, but it still has that innate balance of dark and light that seems near effortless. It's got a bit of roughness around the edges that did make this a little bit less of an unabashed joy than What We Do In The Shadows. 

That's not to say that this isn’t every bit as much refreshing, simplistic fun as the others - it’s easy to see the spiritual roots of Hunt for the Wilderpeople in this - but little things that might have niggled are a little more evident in this, with its slower pacing and scaled down stakes. It does a great job at pulling you into small town New Zealand in the 80s, and telling the coming-of-age story of an 11 year old whose dad comes back into his life while running from the law and brings with the realisation that people aren’t always that great. Even though some of the jokes felt a little unnecessary (in the vein of the fat jokes in Hunt for the Wilderpeople), the emotional heart of this felt every bit as strong - if not more so.

Visually, there’s some great stuff happening. The adherance to the 80s and to the characters results in some great costuming, sitting alongside a fantastic array of 80s hair and rat’s tails. The younger brother, Rocky, is fantastic, and his story is accompanied by children’s drawings in stop motion. It really gives an extra layer to the lens we’re seeing the story through, from the eyes of the kids. There are also some great quasi dream sequences that take the form of people recreating Michael Jackson video clips, and those little moments of levity are nice amongst the darker parts. It’s a nice way to see some directorial, artistic flair amongst a very subdued, restrained story that really gains its heart as it goes. Where it falls down, apart from those few bits of humour that felt less like humour and more like failed grabs for authenticity of immaturity, is when it’s trying to figure itself out early on and shying away from the darkness/light juxtaposition that really gives the story its interest. 

Rating: 8.5/10 -  People are crap and they do terrible things, and we still care about them. It’s an idea that works, and it makes it a little easier to swallow some of the ideas that are products of the 80s context rather than seeming malicious. They're still not palatable, but it softens the blows. It’s nice to have some of that lower key sardonic Kiwi humour lacing a story that is at many points deeply sad, rather than anything too brash.