By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Taika Waititi
Starring: Julian Dennison | Rachel House | Rima Te Wiata | Sam Neill | Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne
Country: new_zealand
Year: 2016
Running time: 101
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/combined
Jeff says: “Actually, I will be nominating Rima Te Wiata for Best Supporting Actress in the role of Bella, a big-hearted, back-to-the-land farmer and forager who brings a misunderstood child out of his shell. This is a fish-out-of water story about an overweight 13-year-old city kid sent to a last-resort foster home in the New Zealand bush. If this one doesn’t work out, it’s off to juvenile detention (although his worst crime is – gasp! – graffiti). Alongside Ms. Te Wiata, Sam Neill plays a gruff and crusty curmudgeon whose latent fatherly (or maybe grandfatherly) instincts gradually blossom while the kid warms to life in the bush. The plot involves the two of them being pursued by an overzealous social worker, and sometimes descends (or ascends, given your tastes) into Pythonesque farce. It’s a mostly good-natured romp in which everything works out in the end (that’s not really giving anything away; the journey provides the enjoyment). Directed by Taika Waitati who gave us last year’s hilarious vampire comedy, THE THINGS WE DO IN THE SHADOWS. New Zealand once again is almost a character in and of itself, makes your eyes ache it’s so pretty.”