Eagle Vs Shark (15.)
Directed Taika Waititi.
Starring Loren Horsley, Jemaine Clement, Joel Tobeck, Brian Sergent, Craig Hall, Rachel House. 93 mins
Quirky originality and dull copycat quirky originality fight it out to no clear conclusion in this New Zealand expression of geek love. The two sides trade blows frenetically with moments of charming individuality alternating with sequences that look like fanboy recreations of favourite scenes from Napoleon Dynamite posted up on YouTube.
I take my hat off to any reviewer who can not invoke Napoleon Dynamite in connection with this film. It’s an obvious comparison but the style and substance are just so similar you can’t ignore it. They both mine a very extreme form of social awkwardness. These are people on the very edge of society desperately trying to fit in but constantly rejected by our herd instinct.
When you deal with these perimeter dwellers it’s hard not to appear cruel and though Waititi’s film seems genuinely good hearted, the characters' situation is so desperate that it felt wrong to chuckle at it in a way that it never would with David Brent.
The story follows the early days of the relationship between Lily, a relentlessly optimistic wallflower and strutting computer nerd Jarrod. Despite Horsley and Clement’s marvellous performances both characters are just a bit quirky-by-numbers. Jarrod – with his thwarted machismo and obsessions with computer games, ranking exercise and getting even with his school bullies - is really far too close to ND.
Whenever it isn’t trying too hard it can be really funny but there are moments that are as appealing as overhearing the next table in a pub reciting the Parrot sketch. At the screening I attended there was one lady that was completely in tune with it and laughed all the way through and I think there’ll be enough people out there who get this film to make it into a little cult item that will survive on for a few years.
I’d have loved to be as thrilled by it as that lady. In the closing moments a misjudged choice of a Stone Roses song seemed to have decisive set my face against it but then a perfect last line won me back.
Directed Taika Waititi.
Starring Loren Horsley, Jemaine Clement, Joel Tobeck, Brian Sergent, Craig Hall, Rachel House. 93 mins
Quirky originality and dull copycat quirky originality fight it out to no clear conclusion in this New Zealand expression of geek love. The two sides trade blows frenetically with moments of charming individuality alternating with sequences that look like fanboy recreations of favourite scenes from Napoleon Dynamite posted up on YouTube.
I take my hat off to any reviewer who can not invoke Napoleon Dynamite in connection with this film. It’s an obvious comparison but the style and substance are just so similar you can’t ignore it. They both mine a very extreme form of social awkwardness. These are people on the very edge of society desperately trying to fit in but constantly rejected by our herd instinct.
When you deal with these perimeter dwellers it’s hard not to appear cruel and though Waititi’s film seems genuinely good hearted, the characters' situation is so desperate that it felt wrong to chuckle at it in a way that it never would with David Brent.
The story follows the early days of the relationship between Lily, a relentlessly optimistic wallflower and strutting computer nerd Jarrod. Despite Horsley and Clement’s marvellous performances both characters are just a bit quirky-by-numbers. Jarrod – with his thwarted machismo and obsessions with computer games, ranking exercise and getting even with his school bullies - is really far too close to ND.
Whenever it isn’t trying too hard it can be really funny but there are moments that are as appealing as overhearing the next table in a pub reciting the Parrot sketch. At the screening I attended there was one lady that was completely in tune with it and laughed all the way through and I think there’ll be enough people out there who get this film to make it into a little cult item that will survive on for a few years.
I’d have loved to be as thrilled by it as that lady. In the closing moments a misjudged choice of a Stone Roses song seemed to have decisive set my face against it but then a perfect last line won me back.
