Boy

Set on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, Boy, an 11-year-old kid and devout Michael Jackson fan, gets a chance to know his father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.

This is the rise of Taika Waititi in all his glory. Whole "Eagle vs Shark" is a fun, offbeat, quirky romance, and is often compared (both favorably and unfavorably) to "Napoleon Dynamite", it falls short just a bit. It is with "Boy" that we see the greatness Waititi is capable of and would continue with such films as "What We Do in the Shadows" and "Hunt for the Wilderpeople".

Exactly how they got away with so much Michael Jackson is beyond me. But I suppose if you don't use the music and just focus on the imagery, you can pass it off as a loving homage or satire. Heck, if I was Jackson, i would have been flattered.

There are very few movies coming out of NZ that are memorable at all, and stumbling upon such a gem is quite a rarity!

I rarely take time to write reviews, but I felt that this movies deserves one:)

There is hardly any fault in this movie from direction and acting perspective, although I have to reckon I have never heard of anyone from the main movie credits... Combining unknown actors with a very simple script is a recipe for disaster, in general,BUT not in this film. I think the charm of the movie comes from kids that are playing their roles just perfect:innocent but responsible when need it.

The last scene of the movie makes you feel that you've just experienced something unique that comes on the screen once in 10 years!

If you manage to get the DVD, invite some friends over and have an '80 night at the movies: all of them they'll feel happy at the end!

This is simply one of the best New Zealand movies made in any century. The story is a richly charactered, well researched, emotionally powerful, and hugely entertaining blend of culture, comedy, music, and drama. I absolutely take my hat off(not that I usually wear one) to Taika Cohen and his crew, they have delivered one of the best films of this year, and that being from all countries. The story is well documented by other users so I won't bore you with the details of that, but for me the main talking point of this film is the exquisite performances of the two lead children. While James Rolleston as Boy has a very vocal part in the film his delivery, range of emotions, and expressions are so important to the film's success, and he pulls this off with such ease, and is such a joy to watch. His fragile brother Rocky, played by Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu, turns in to be what I consider one of the best and most emotionally powerful performances from a child in any film I have seen. His role is largely speechless(though he certainly has a share of words to deliver) yet he is able to convey what his character is thinking and feeling through facial expressions, and almost in a sense through his eyes. I cannot recommend this film enough, we went to see it two days ago and I am still smiling from the memory of this great film. The incorporation of Michael Jackson tributes into the film could have been hard to pull off in some movies, yet here Cohen blends these in to the mix with great effect, in particular the final scene which simply has to seen to be fully appreciated. The comedy elements have universal appeal, and are well dispersed throughout the film.

Just go see it when you are able, as simple as that. Brilliant...........

Beautiful, funny at times, never maudlin, coming of age for the children and adults in the film. Shot in a small town that is genuinely the town that the author/actor (father) actually grew up in. He spoke after our screening, and it was a 30 kid school house, which it still is. Actually the film is a huge success in NZ and the little community gets a small percentage of the gross, so the community is benefiting from this film.

The film captures a time and place in history and culture. It is slow and yet the story develops and covers a lot of ground. What I especially loved is that the camera doesn't jump around like Hollywood movies, changing every 5 seconds. It stays with the character.

Put on your list!

Introspective narrative can work profound change, and this is a good example.

The story is simple enough: New Zealand native village; extreme poverty; passel of young kids establishing the world of the narrative.

One of these is our narrator, the Boy, about ten. His primary concern is how he appears to his mates and the local girls. Various comic devices set the tone before his father arrives back from prison. We then see some endearing shared fantasies, before Boy gets the truth about his Dad as selfishly irresponsible. The shape is generally called "coming of age." Thousands of these have been made. They have a built in minimal appeal, and great constraints on the ability to say anything new.

But this does have something new, thanks to the apparently limitless gateway of self- reference. We watch the movie that includes an inner movie of the boy's life, composed of fragments of other movies. We've had this since "Breathless," of course. The fragments have to do with roles associated with the father, mostly war movies, and about Boy, mostly Michael Jackson videos.

Here's something new: after we get all that settled, there is a second inner movie fold that appears, the Dad and his cohorts. He brings his own inner movie, different than Boy's. It is one of a rebel gang: James Dean, Marlon Brando. Boy tries to adapt his inner movie to his dad's and in the process breaks both.

Along the way, there is a spectrum of what we see: the narrator in the film, his ordinary life, his fantasies as he sees them. His fantasies as we see them. His dad's fantasies as he, we and Boy sees them.

Taika Cohen wrote, directed and stars as the dad. It is good, very good.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.